All That Glitters
by RocketVeteran
Summary: A Rocket Grunt decides to take the Gym Challenge with permission from the Boss himself, but some strange things happen along the way. Lucky coincidences? Or is somebody pulling strings behind the scenes? And why? NEW CHAPTER POSTED AND OLD ONES UPDATED!
1. Fire

**DISCLAIMER:** I don't own Pokémon, any of its characters or any of its place names. If I did, it would be full of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll and wouldn't be suitable for kiddies. This story is rated T for occasional bad language and a few references to drugs and violence. It really won't break your eyes, I promise.

**LONG INITIAL AUTHOR'S NOTE:** Several years ago, I was writing my first ever fanfiction. It's not really worth looking for it. It was a Mary-Sue-laden piece of drivel. I also promised that I wouldn't leave it unfinished. I broke that promise. But, anyway, _All That Glitters _is my attemptto salvage this piece of fanfiction. I've reworked the characters and the whole storyline into something that is hopefully (!) a bit more interesting, although there may still be flaws here and there. If you've read the original, you'll recognise this, but many important things have changed.

**THE 'PROPER' SUMMARY:** A Rocket decides to take the Gym Challenge and finds a few mysterious 'aids' along the way. Mainly OC, but includes a lot of Domino and appearances from the Gym Leaders and Elite Four. Later chapters and the sequels, if I post them, will focus more on Team Rocket's history, Giovanni's past and what happened in Johto (in G/S/C), but you'll have to stick around for that ;)

* * *

_**Chapter 1**_

_**Fire**_

The smoke was rising against the distant backdrop of the Saffron City skyline as Lorelei pulled over at the suburban roadside in her dark blue Jeep. She got out of the car and slammed the door behind her. The young woman's face bore a look of controlled anxiety as she began to walk towards the throng of people that had gathered at a safe distance from what was left of the detached house. She had managed to pry her way through the crowd and was digging out her identification and press pass to show to one of the policemen holding back the onlookers when she caught sight of four firemen coming out of the blackened remains of the front door. They were carrying two body bags.

Lorelei gasped silently in shock and grief. Tears welled up in her eyes, obscuring her vision. Forgetting about her job and the official reason why she was there, she returned to her Jeep and leaned against it, sifting a hand through her long hair. She raised her head to gaze up at the smoke-dulled sky and took her phone out of her pocket. She didn't have to look at it; she just pressed speed dial and waited.

"They didn't get out."

* * *

_**Six years later…**_

The two-dozen-strong team of Rockets were sitting in an abandoned warehouse on the outskirts of downtown Saffron. The place was one of many properties in the city which belonged to Kanto's most infamous crime syndicate – heck, practically half the city was theirs by now – but it wasn't much to look at, and neither were the group themselves. They were all Black Squad members, the lowest and most basic tier of Team Rocket, often referred to as 'Grunts' by the higher ranks. They never called themselves that. Amongst themselves, they were 'squaddies', the foundation and backbone of the organisation. They were usually under the watchful eye of an Elite Rocket, but this time, they had not been assigned a leader. The higher ranks were all too busy at the Silph Corporation's headquarters to be wasting their talents in back-up.

The lights were out. They'd been trying to convince the local authorities that this was just another development site which had been put on hold for financial reasons, nothing to see here. Lights were a no-no. The only illumination came from a chink under the door and a flickering lantern that was perched atop a pile of boxes at the other side of the room. The Rockets were silent apart from a few whispered smatterings here and there. It was too noisy to talk and be heard. All they could hear was the rush of vehicles outside and the metallic hum of the nearby Magnet Train.

One of the Rockets was sitting with her back pressed against the door and her head bowed into her chest, holding her breath and clutching a pager tightly in her hands. She was gripping it so tightly because she'd fought tooth and nail – quite literally – for the right to hold it. Having something in her hands helped to calm her nerves. She was glad that it was relatively dark; she didn't want any of her teammates to see the worried expression on her face. She had good reason to worry. Worrying proved that she cared. This was one of the best things that Team Rocket had ever planned and yet it all stood on the edge of a knife. One mistake and it would fall apart.

The last time they had been at the Silph office, Giovanni had seemed content. But everyone knew that it wouldn't be over until they had the manager's signature permanently on that contract – and even then, they wouldn't be out of the woods until the Silph directors began to truly understand the benefit of a protection racket. But, like so many others, they were being stubborn.

The pager bleeped. Kantaris almost dropped it in alarm and realised at once that she had picked a bad place to sit. She had chosen to 'guard' the door, thinking that she would be the first out as soon as they were called to action. But now that the moment had arrived, she found herself scrambling out of the way of her teammates and tagging along at the back of the group.

Nearly twenty minutes later, three black minivans pulled up at the back door of the twelve-story building that was the headquarters of the Silph Corporation. They were met by a white-clad Elite Rocket who sneered as they got out of the vans.

"Reinforcement, late as usual. What took you so long?"

"The traffic was bad," one of the Grunts replied with a scowl. "We thought we'd better stick to the rules of the road. You wouldn't want us to get stopped by the police, would you?"

The Elite Rocket beckoned to the squadron and led them into the downstairs foyer. Kantaris ran to catch up and briskly walked beside him.

"What's wrong?" she asked, trying to sound professional but failing as the sheer curiosity in her voice betrayed her.

The Elite Rocket glanced at her and turned his nose up slightly. He had neither the mood nor the time for chitchatting with the squaddies, but he supposed that they had a right to know what they were dealing with. He halted in his tracks, turned to the twenty-four Grunts who were following him and announced,

"First, you need to be aware that this is a hostage situation – but the cops don't know that yet, and we want to keep it that way. As soon as they get wind of hostages, they'll be all over us like a Beedrill swarm. Understand?" A few of the Grunts nodded; others simply stared at him expectantly. "Now, on top of all that, a kid managed to break his way into the office."

"A kid? You called us out to deal with a kid?"

"He might be just a kid, but his Pokémon are tough. He defeated all of our guards. He must be on the fifth or sixth floor by now. Disperse and search, preferably in groups."

The Rockets saluted smartly and charged both of the staircases that lay at either ends of the foyer. Their Elite supervisor, meanwhile, went outside. Kantaris stared after him, wondering whether he was in a frame of mind to lose his temper if she ignored the orders that he had just given. She wandered over to the elevator and pressed the call button. _He must be on the fifth or sixth floor by now_, the Elite Rocket had said. Kantaris's button-pressing finger hovered over the _5_ and _6_ buttons on the elevator pad. Then she pressed _12 _with a shrug, thrust her hands into her uniform's pockets and hummed over the faint sound of the calming elevator music.

There was only one corridor on the twelfth floor, and it led to only one room: the Chairman's office. Kantaris briefly examined the portraits on the corridor wall – previous company managers, presumably – as she sauntered towards the double doors at the end. Just before she reached them, they opened, and a young man with an 'R' on the breast pocket of his dark suit stepped out to meet her.

"You can't go in there," he said, his voice leaving no room for argument. "The Boss is in an important battle."

"A battle?" Kantaris cringed at the way her voice echoed in the portrait-lined corridor.

"Where are you supposed to be?" the Executive asked sternly. "I'm ordering you to return to your post."

Kantaris scampered past him before he had even finished his sentence. She slammed into the heavy doors and entered the office. Sure enough, there was the kid that everyone was talking about. He turned around briefly, startled by the intrusion. That moment was enough to leave Kantaris stunned. The boy couldn't have been more than fourteen years old. At first glance, he looked like little more than a street urchin. He was dressed in filthy jeans and a torn jacket. Strands of his hair stuck out from beneath a faded baseball cap which he wore low enough to hide his face. But when he turned around for that split-second, her gaze fell to the pocket of his tatty jacket, attracted by the glitter of five small badges.

"Okay, Vaporeon, finish it off with a Bubblebeam!"

Kantaris watched in a frozen mixture of horror and fascination as the sleek, impressive Vaporeon unleashed a powerful Bubblebeam attack upon Giovanni's Golem. The rock Pokémon went down instantly and the kid recalled his Vaporeon. Giovanni slammed his fists down onto the table in frustration. Kantaris felt a hand on the scruff of her neck, seizing the dark ponytail that had managed to escape from the constraints of her cap. She yelped as she was pulled out of the office by the same Executive who had tried to stop her from entering in the first place. He almost threw her down the corridor.

"Leave! Now! This is your last warning!"

Kantaris was already running. She ignored the elevator and darted into the stairwell where she began to clatter her way down the endless staircases. Before long, she stopped to catch her breath and she cautiously stepped out into another whitewashed hallway. The plastic number on the wall told her that she was on the ninth floor. She marvelled at how deserted the place was. Everyone else had fled already. Her common sense told her to do the same. She could hear sirens in the distance, but she was rooted to the spot, her eyes fixed on the stark wall in front of her. The tiny section of the battle that she had witnessed was replaying itself in her mind. _But he was just a kid. Why would the Boss agree to battle him?_

She blinked, awakening herself from her trance, and looked around to make sure that there really was nobody else there. When she was satisfied that she was alone, she called the elevator again, took it down to ground level and left the building by the back door, zipping up her coat to hide her uniform as she did so.

* * *

"_Oh, Silph is gonna be sorry. Every smart business in Saffron is paying its dues to Team Rocket, and the ones that don't..."_

"_Yeah, but what if all those other 'smart businesses' get wind of this and start fighting back? We could lose that city..."_

Kantaris stood outside the Rocket Gaming Corner for as long as it took to smoke a single cigarette, listening to the muffled conversation about extortion and racketeering that drifted through the door. It was a cold night and she was shivering. Her free hand was in her pocket, her fingers trailing over the firearm that she always carried with her when she was out at night. Celadon City wasn't nearly as bad as Saffron, but Kantaris didn't want to rely on her pair of Pokémon to protect her; she had more faith in solid gunmetal and bullets.

She threw the stub of her cigarette over her shoulder and started walking. She couldn't stop thinking about that boy. He'd seemed much too powerful for someone his age. She'd never seen anyone so strong. He may have beaten every single Rocket at Silph – or those who had bothered to stick around, at least. Team Rocket had assembled their best from all over Kanto for that operation. Was that really the best they could offer? Or was that kid simply unbeatable?

Maybe that wasn't such a ridiculous notion. After all, prior to that afternoon, Kantaris had always thought that Giovanni was unbeatable. But she'd just seen him lose. To a_ child_. The kid didn't know it, but he'd just beaten the Viridian City Gym Leader. That could have been his Earth Badge, right there, as easy as that. His big ticket to the Indigo Conference – or even the League. Kantaris might have laughed if she weren't so jealous, not to mention mortified that she had just witnessed her mentor being defeated.

She paused at the Pokémon Centre on the street corner. Just outside the door, as usual, was a box of pamphlets about the Gym Challenge. Kantaris had never paid much attention to them in the past; now her hand lingered over the box in consideration. But, after a few seconds, she shook her head and kept walking. She'd never liked reading. Not much of an excuse, though, was it? No excuse at all for not taking an interest in the Gym Challenge. But she'd spent enough time observing Kanto's most powerful Gym Leader to know that it looked like too much hard work.

Kantaris glanced down at the two Pokéballs that were attached to the belt around her waist. She always made sure that her trainer belt was showing under the close-fitting waistband at the bottom of her jacket in the vain hope that people would notice that she was carrying Pokémon and form some kind of opinion. Whether that opinion was admiration, respect or envy, Kantaris didn't mind. She just wanted people to know that she was a trainer. In truth, she wasn't much of a trainer at all. But nobody else had to know that. Nobody else had to know that those two Pokémon were the only ones to her name, nor that one of them didn't even listen to her.

It wasn't that she didn't have confidence. Neither was it that she considered herself to be a _bad_ trainer. Compared to a lot of Rockets of her rank and experience, she was good. She'd been to Saffron City's Pokémon Stadium the previous year and won one of the little tournaments. Then again, she'd cheated. The Pokémon she'd used hadn't actually been _hers_ – they were throw-outs from Team Rocket's black market supply – but she believed that the victory still counted for something. It was only an amateur tournament, after all. She hadn't hurt anyone by bending the rules a little, had she?

Kantaris had never caught Pokémon in an honest way and she had never trained her own pair properly. She didn't know if she had the energy or the motivation. At the Stadium, it was no big deal if you didn't win. Hundreds of trainers competed there every summer; most came away empty-handed but happy. The Gym Challenge seemed much more real. Nobody collected badge for fun, and Kantaris had never been serious about anything in her life except for her career in Team Rocket. Kids these days would embark on the Gym Challenge, blissfully unaware of what awaited them if they made it past Viridian City. And it wasn't as if many of them made it _that_ far. Even the Indigo Conference, a knock-out tournament against fellow trainers, was a daunting prospect. And then there was the League itself, and the Elite Four...

No, Kantaris had decided a long time ago that if she were ever to become an excellent trainer, it would be for the good of Team Rocket. That was where her loyalties lay. She had sworn an oath, and attempting to leave Team Rocket rarely had good results. No matter how much the Grunts liked to talk about quitting, Team Rocket only offered one kind of membership, regardless of rank – and that was a lifetime membership. Of course you could quit, if you were willing to skip the country and watch your back. Kantaris had never considered leaving. Even without pain of death hanging over her head, she didn't _want_ to leave. If nothing else, there was the blood issue to consider. But she believed that she was committed to Team Rocket itself.

When she returned to the hideout, Kantaris stayed in the arcade which formed the Rocket Gaming Corner's 'respectable' front, relatively speaking. The place was closed. This meant that its 'employees' were free to go wherever they liked. This was one of their safest bases. To a lot of them, it probably felt like home. To some, it was a lot warmer and more luxurious than home. Six Grunts were watching the television that was mounted on a wall bracket above the counter. Kantaris stood at the back of the small crowd, unnoticed, and after a few minutes of watching, she could see why they were all so transfixed.

It was an advanced Pokémon battle. Something in particular caught Kantaris' eye: there was a Dragonair on the battlefield. It took a very specific kind of trainer to control a Dragon Pokémon. Kantaris waited impatiently for the trainer to come into view. When he finally did, she saw that he was sporting a jet-black cape. The camera angle changed and showed a close-up of his face. His eyes looked like they held more fire than the Arcanine against which he was battling, and Kantaris sighed when she saw that he couldn't have been much older than twenty._ Same age as me and he's battling on television. With a Dragonair. What a bastard._

The camera angle switched again to record the Dragonair unleashing a blinding attack upon the opponent's Arcanine. Kantaris had never seen an attack like that before. It was like a giant lightning bolt seen at close range, accompanied by a high-pitched, scream-like sound that made Kantaris' hair stand up on end even though the volume on the television was turned down low.

"How did he do that? He didn't even call out an attack!"

The Arcanine teetered on the spot before collapsing into the dust, as if all of its strength had been drained in mere seconds. A few of the Rockets whistled and applauded along with the crowd in the stadium, but there was a distinct taste of spite – or malice, even – in the air. Kantaris didn't understand it.

"Sorry, who is he?" she asked.

"Lance Owens," one of her teammates replied, sounding very unimpressed. "Elite Four."

"Makes you feel sick, doesn't he?" someone else remarked.

Kantaris cleared her throat. She was feeling quite jealous, but not exactly 'sick'. "Well, he seems pretty good – "

One of the Rockets turned around for a moment. "Did you just say 'pretty good'? We're talking about Lance! He's only the best Pokémon Master of his generation!"

"He's the greatest ever," someone else added. "Makes my skin crawl, though."

"Then why are you watching him battle?" Kantaris asked uneasily. This whole thing smacked of sadomasochism, somehow.

"Because he's fun to watch! I've never seen him lose, it's like he's invincible."

"I saw him lose once!" another Rocket interrupted. "Might have been funny if he actually lost his cool as well, but I don't think he ever freaks out."

"See, he hates Rockets," someone else explained to Kantaris. "So, obviously, we hate him right back. But we know that he could crush us with a single Pokémon, so there's not a lot we can do. Then again, anyone who's anyone hates Team Rocket. That's why we never get anywhere, see? Never have done and never will. You can forget about Silph."

Team Rocket as an organisation was strong, almost at the level of a small army these days if you considered the mass of wealth and weaponry at its disposal, but it was standing against some seriously terrifying opponents. And if a mere child could destroy a major Team Rocket undertaking, Kantaris shuddered to think what the Elite Four could do if they ever got involved, if Lance was an accurate representation of their power. She sat down at one of the slot machines.

"Invincible..." she muttered. "Can anyone be that good?"

"It's not like you'd get the chance to find out. Listen, whoever-you-are: if you ran into Lance by some horrible twist of fate, he wouldn't even look at you. And if he did, he wouldn't make eye contact long enough for you to challenge him. And if you _did_ manage to challenge him, he wouldn't accept."

"You can't turn down a challenge!"

Kantaris had been taught a long time ago that, if someone were to make and hold eye contact with another trainer, it would mean that they want to battle. To turn down this preliminary challenge, the other trainer must look away or give some other negative signal. But if a trainer ever went so far as to make an outright verbal challenge, it would be extremely rude to turn it down. But her teammates neither knew nor cared. Battling etiquette was hardly top of the curriculum at the Rocket Academy, after all.

"You couldn't hold his attention for long enough."

"What if he caught me on a Team Rocket job? I bet that'd get his attention."

"It would get you knocked out and arrested – if you were lucky. I don't think you have any idea how much the League hates us. Anyway, the point is, Lance would never battle you. You'd have to be outstanding. And you'd have to have the badges to prove it, at the very least."

"I can get badges..." Kantaris insisted.

"You're a Rocket."

"So?"

"So, the law sees you as a criminal and the Pokémon League wouldn't even use you for Pokémon food."

"Then I'll be sure to wear something other than this," Kantaris said, pulling at the dusty black sleeve of her uniform.

"Apart from that, the Gym Challenge means travelling. You're a Grunt. That means you're as broke as a beggar – with a worse reputation."

"I'll get money when I win battles."

One of the Rockets turned around and glared at Kantaris' belt. "With only two Pokémon, huh?"

"I'll catch more."

"No matter how many Pokémon you catch, you're still just a Rocket."

"'Just a Rocket'? What does that mean? I always thought that the Gym Challenge was open to anyone who was good enough."

"Exactly. You have to be good enough. And you're not."

"Who made _you_ a League officer?" Kantaris asked, irritated.

"If you ever made it to the Plateau, Lance would wipe the floor with you."

"Right now," Kantaris said, "I'd agree with you. But anyone can learn and get better, right?"

"Look, the League isn't just a collection of gyms with an obstacle course waiting at the end. It has power, it has money and it has _values_. This is Team Rocket. We might have power and money but we don't have values. The two things are complete opposites. If you ever became a member of the Elite Four, whose side would you be on?"

Kantaris sighed and leaned on the slot machine heavily; if it had been switched on, she would have been pressing all of the buttons at once. She gazed up at the television screen. The battle had finished and the two trainers were shaking hands. Lance gave his opponent a sporting smile and a pat on the back. The atmosphere was thrilling, even through the cheap television set. The crowd was chanting Lance's name as he left the battlefield and countless people were leaning so far out of the stands that they could have fallen out and injured themselves; they were calling for an autograph, a touch of hands, anything at all. Lance was very obliging. He looked completely unaffected.

The realisation that he got this kind of treatment everywhere he went made Kantaris bristle furiously. She watched as he took his time, even pausing to engage in brief conversation with some of the fans – as if they were his friends! Finally, he turned and gave a wave to the crowds at the other end of the stadium before leaving with a stylish flick of his cape. Now understanding why her teammates felt so sick, Kantaris scrambled off the chair and walked out of the back door at once, leaving it to slam behind her. In her wake, the remaining Rockets returned their attention to the television; someone had just changed the channel.

Kantaris paused just outside the door. As soon as she got outside, the cold air smacked her in the face and the smell of stale rubbish invaded her nose from the trash cans in the alleyway. She'd never really noticed it before. She heard her teammates laughing and strained to hear what they were actually saying, but she couldn't concentrate. She could hear the bass from the seedy nightclubs down the road, perforated by drunken shouts and the sound of glass hitting asphalt somewhere nearby. It was just another night in down-town Celadon City. And she, after all, was just another Rocket.


	2. Taking Flight

**DISCLAIMER:** I don't own Pokemon, any of its characters or any of its place names. If I did, it would be full of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll and wouldn't be suitable for kiddies. This story is rated for occasional **bad language**, **mild innuendo** and a few **references to drink, drugs and violence**. It won't break your eyes, I promise.

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:** Sorry this chapter is so long. It contains a lot of stuff, in terms of laying the groundwork on things, such as what Team Rocket actually is, and hints at a possible history between Kantaris and the Boss. I know that sounds Sue-ish but it's probably not what you're thinking, and in the future it'll become relevant for Giovanni's own back-story, so...I hope it's not too bad.

* * *

_**Chapter 2**_

_**Taking Flight**_

Despite her doubts, Kantaris was obsessed. For the week-and-a-bit that followed, she couldn't concentrate on anything else. It was affecting her efficiency as a Rocket – which, if she was honest, was not top-rate to begin with. Ideally, she would have liked to loiter at the Viridian City Gym where she could watch real battles taking place and maybe learn a thing or two. Or maybe, after seeing a dozen trainers getting beaten, she would come to her senses about the Gym Challenge and realise that it wasn't worth the hassle. If she ever asked Giovanni for his opinion, he would probably tell her to forget about it.

But the Team Rocket Boss was still not in the best of moods after what had happened at Silph. Kantaris didn't dare to approach him, especially not to ask if she could have a few extra joyrides to Viridian City. As far as he was concerned, her training had been completed long ago. She could handle herself in a simple battle and that was all the ability she needed as a low-level Rocket. If she wanted to improve, she would have to do that on her own; he didn't have the time to give her extra training. It had reached a point where they barely saw or spoke to each other at all.

To make matters worse, the word had already spread from the small group of Rockets who had been in the arcade that one of the Grunts fancied herself as a worthy opponent for the Elite Four's 'hotshot' Dragon Master Lance. It was beginning to become unbearable. But leaving her job as a Rocket – albeit temporarily – and embarking on the Gym Challenge was a big step to take. It was a big risk. Kantaris' own boredom and the scathing remarks from her teammates drove her further and further towards taking that risk, but she always managed to find some excuse as to why she wasn't actually _doing_ it. Finally, all her excuses had been exhausted – except for one.

For the past few years, 'home' had been a grimy flat in the red light district of Saffron City along with two other Black Squad members. There was still some stuff that hadn't been unpacked. It just sat there in tatty cardboard boxes, lining the walls of every room, decaying, fading and gathering dust. The place was no luxury apartment. It had two bedrooms; Samantha and Janet had been friends since childhood and had agreed to share a room. Neither of them particularly wanted to share with Kantaris. She was possibly the worst roommate ever: noisy, inconsiderate and messy. She frequently set the fire alarm off, either by smoking – sometimes she would even fall asleep with a cigarette in her hand – or by burning whatever she was attempting to cook.

It wasn't as if any of the three girls owned much. By way of possessions, Kantaris only had a few drawers full of clothes, including two Team Rocket uniforms. In the pockets of her coat she always carried a lighter and some cigarettes, usually with the health warning scribbled out: she didn't like to be reminded that she was making herself even more unhealthy by smoking. Her handgun was Team Rocket property and was supposed to be used for official jobs only; nevertheless, Kantaris often carried it with her. While she was working, she would occasionally tuck the gun in her trainer belt which held her two Pokémon, even though it was against Team Rocket's policy of concealing all weapons and using them only as a last resort. She had never fired that gun, but after being hit across the face by a few Executives for how much she clung to it, Kantaris was beginning to become wary.

At this moment in time, the gun was resting on her pillow. Kantaris was rolling up her clothes and cramming them into her backpack. Samantha stood in the doorway, wiping her hands on a grubby kitchen towel. She watched her roommate for long enough to establish that she was planning on leaving.

"What do you think you're doing?"

"What does it look like I'm doing?"

"Where are you moving to?" Samantha pointed a finger in warning. "And don't say that you're moving in with the Boss. I won't believe you."

"I'm not moving to anywhere. I'm going on a trip."

"Oh, is it this business about the Gym Challenge?" Samantha rolled her eyes. "I heard that you'd been talking shit at the arcade last week."

"So, you know already. You don't need to ask me."

"I didn't think you were serious! This is so unfair of you. You didn't even think to _tell us_ that you were going?"

"You never wanted me here in the first place. And Janet absolutely _hates_ me – "

"That's not the point! What are we supposed to do about the rent?"

"What I find unfair is that I've been paying more than my share of the rent on this place. My math isn't too good, but I know when I'm being screwed over. I guess you and Janet will have to get off your asses and find part-time jobs. Or bring in one of your friends." Kantaris knew full well that those two had no other friends apart from each other; if they had, they wouldn't have let her move in with them. Then again, she was in the same situation herself. At least they had each other.

"You were only paying more on the rent because we've heard you earn twice as much as we do, what with all those bonuses. And don't think we don't know what those are for."

"You've been saying that ever since we joined Team Rocket, and you're still wrong."

Having finished packing, Kantaris stood up and put her coat on. She picked up her bag, slung it over one shoulder and walked out of the room, straight past Samantha who stared at her in sheer disbelief.

"You're going? Just like that?"

"I'm going to work!"

The bus was full and Kantaris had to stand up. There was nothing unusual about that. It was early morning and everyone was going to their jobs. So was she. It just so happened that her work was a little different. It wasn't that much of a secret, either. There were probably some people on that very bus who indirectly benefited from Team Rocket's dealings. Illegal activity was everywhere, and it was nothing to do with 'good' or 'evil'. Kantaris had learned that from Giovanni. She couldn't deny that he was a criminal in the eyes of the law, but she had never thought of him as being _evil_. She couldn't even think of herself or her teammates as 'bad people'. They were just making a living and contributing to Kanto's economy like everyone else.

Most of the general public still were still unsure what to make of Team Rocket. The police and the Pokémon League said that they were just a glorified gang, a shadow to the Mafia, and there were even some Rockets who believed that. But those who ever bothered to listen to the Boss knew that it wasn't true. 'Glorified gangs' didn't have spectacular aims like Team Rocket. They just wanted to cause trouble. Team Rocket was so much _more_ than that. Kantaris preferred to think of herself as a member of a political and commercial organisation that was dedicated to bringing about a revolution – even though she understood nothing about politics or business. Team Rocket's crimes were merely a means to an end. Giovanni said that, one day soon, when they had reached their goal, Team Rocket would no longer be seen as outlaws. They would be the ones _making_ the laws.

Rather different to that future glory, Kantaris' usual workplace was one of Team Rocket's countless warehouses. From here, stolen Pokémon that weren't strong or rare enough to be worth keeping were shipped off to other places all over the country where they were sold off in various ways – sometimes to Team Rocket's allies, sometimes to unsuspecting trainers, sometimes to scientists for experimentation. The warehouse also handled other things, but Pokémon trafficking was the main source of profit.

Kantaris had Giovanni to thank for that job, of course. He had supported her once upon a time, albeit in a way as narrow and twisted as a corkscrew, but his personal support and encouragement had dwindled a lot over the past two years. Kantaris knew that he was busy, but she couldn't help but wonder if he would support her this time. If he said no, it would probably be his final word on the matter. But she decided to chance it. As soon as she got to work, she hung up her coat and ducked into a closet before any of the others could see her and demand that she make coffee for everyone. She phoned the Boss on his private line.

He answered the call with in his usual way: "What?"

Kantaris wasn't offended. She was used to it by now. She was on a company phone which had a block on it, making the number untraceable.

"It's me. Are you okay?" She always began like that when she phoned him. She was sure that nobody else ever bothered to ask him how he felt, not even his closest advisers.

He didn't answer the question. "What do you want?"

"To talk. In person."

"You want to come to the Gym? Today?" Giovanni sighed loudly. "You'll have to find your own means of transport."

It was often the case that Kantaris could hitch a ride with any Rockets who were heading over to Viridian City. There was one guy in particular. He was good company. He was the only Elite Rocket who didn't treat her like she had something contagious. He didn't talk down to her. In fact, they rarely discussed Team Rocket matters. He had never asked her why she was always taking trips to the Gym. He'd never even asked her name; she didn't know his, either. Giovanni only ever called him 'the messenger'. But it seemed that he was unavailable today. Kantaris was disappointed, but she had to get to Viridian City.

"I'll get a coach." The train was too expensive. "See you around noon."

As soon as she had spoken, the line went dead. Kantaris still wasn't offended. He'd never been one for small talk or pleasantries. Neither did she pay any attention to the way in which her team-mates heckled her as she walked out of the door before work had even started. She used her usual excuse:

"Breakfast."

They knew by now that that was a pathetic lie. She wouldn't be back all day. She liked to take very long breakfasts. It was hardly surprising that there were some interesting rumours flying around, but Kantaris was either oblivious or simply chose not to say anything.

Away from the stuffiness, the complaints and the bitching that went on in the warehouse, Kantaris went to the coach terminal and paid for an intercity ticket to Viridian. She hoped that Giovanni would let her take the Gym Challenge or that she'd run into a stupid but rich trainer: she'd just spent the last of her cash and her wages weren't due for another two weeks. It was a good thing that she was used to living on next to nothing, and even less than that. The talk of bonuses was just a lie; she'd never received a bonus in her life.

* * *

Leaning against the coach window, Kantaris dug in her pocket and took out an ID card. She had to remind herself that this was her trainer card; up to now, she had never used it as such. She frowned at the bad photograph – which made her _look_ like a criminal, in her opinion – and the pseudonym which still meant nothing to her, after all these years. The first name was her own, albeit with a different spelling, but 'Kantaris' had been given to her at the Rocket Academy without a hint of explanation.

She didn't mind the name in itself, but the question of whether or not she was Greek or Spanish, or half one or the other – but she was neither – became irritating sometimes. The next remark, after she'd said no, would inevitably be, _Oh, but you look a little Greek/Spanish. _Apparently everyone from the Southern end of Europe looked exactly the same. Lost in thought, Kantaris flipped the card over, ran a finger over the microchips embedded in the other side and continued to do this for the remainder of her journey.

When she reached the Gym, Kantaris saw that there were guards at the main door. The servants and Rockets who worked at the house and the Gym knew her well enough by now; the pair of guards let her in without a word. As she expected, the balcony over the battlefield was empty, its red curtains closed. She took the side door that was hidden at the other side of the battlefield and cut through the garage. She entered the code for the lock on the door and made her way to the office upstairs.

"Sophia." Giovanni acknowledged her without looking up from whatever paperwork he was doing. As usual, there was a glass of scotch on the desk.

"Long time no talk," she said cautiously as she stepped into his office.

"We talked this morning."

"We spoke to each other but we didn't really talk. We haven't talked properly since – "

"Since...?" Giovanni put his pen down, folded his arms and leaned back in his chair.

"Never mind."

"Say what you were going to say."

"It's been a long time, that's all." Kantaris swallowed hard. "But I can understand why. You must be angry about what happened at Silph. If my group could have gotten there sooner, I might have been able to take out a couple of that kid's Pokémon and – "

"You couldn't have done anything. If I failed to defeat that child, what could you have possibly done?"

"You're right. I couldn't – "

"It has happened before. No doubt it will happen again. But for now I have to concentrate on getting Team Rocket out of this financial and motivational rut. There was a lot resting on the purchase of the Silph Corporation. The failure to complete the deal has left a substantial deficit that we have to sort out somehow."

Kantaris felt a fleeting twinge of remorse. It must have been endlessly stressful to be in charge of an enterprise like Team Rocket. But she wasn't there to give Giovanni sympathy; she felt it, but she knew that he wouldn't want it.

"Why are you here?"

"I need to ask a favour."

"A favour?" Giovanni laughed. It was a genuine laugh, too. "It must be important if you're daring to ask at this time."

"It is." But Kantaris wasn't sure anymore. Next to the troubles of Team Rocket, her own progress as a trainer seemed petty and insignificant. She twitched nervously. "It seemed important up until now."

"What is it?"

"I'm thinking of travelling for a while."

"Are we talking about fieldwork?"

"Not exactly."

Kantaris cringed as she realised that he was making a dry joke. Her last 'fieldwork expedition' had ended in a run-in with the Pokémon Defence League, a group of Pokémon rights fanatics, vigilantes and bounty hunters who were not-so-secretly endorsed by the Pokémon League. There was a permanent souvenir of the occasion on her right wrist. Fieldwork was not something she intended to revisit any time soon.

"A holiday, then."

"No, Sir."

"No?"

"No. I'm thinking of..."

"What is it?" Giovanni asked impatiently.

"Sir, I want to take the Gym Challenge."

Kantaris could see that the Boss hadn't been expecting that. He had raised his glass of whisky to his mouth but hesitated to drink. He contracted the fingers of his free hand into a loose fist and there was a brief flicker of surprise on his face. Kantaris smiled to herself, enjoying the fact that she always noticed those little reactions. Of course, they weren't necessarily _good_ reactions. Maybe he was angry. Maybe she was about to get put in her place.

"Is that so?" Giovanni drank his whisky in one go and banged the empty glass down on the table. Kantaris nodded mutely and he gave her a hard gaze."This is rather unexpected," he said.

"I know. I'm sorry."

Giovanni smiled faintly as he realised that Kantaris really _was_ sorry. Although she was trying to stay poker-faced, he could easily tell that she was nervous, maybe even embarrassed. She looked as though she wanted to change her mind, turn around and leave the office. She had no idea. She didn't know that he'd been waiting for her to say this for some time. _Better late than never_, he thought. But, although he was in favour of her decision, he didn't show it. She might be suspicious if he encouraged her outright.

"It's a lot harder than it looks. How often do you hear about a new champion, Kantaris? How often do you hear about a new Pokémon Master?"

"I'm not too good with current affairs, Sir."

"In that case, let me ask you something else. How often do you see me lose to challengers?"

Kantaris was baffled. She tried to think of a single occasion on which she'd seen Giovanni fail to win – not counting, of course, the fluke that had taken place at Silph. She could not remember ever witnessing a challenger win at the Gym. True enough, she was hardly ever there these days, but she expected that it would be rare at best.

"It's extremely uncommon," Giovanni said when she failed to answer. "Do you know why that is?"

"Because you're – "

"Because a lot of trainers don't make it that far. Every time you enter a Gym, there's always the risk that you won't make it. The higher you get, the bigger the risk." He rapped his knuckles on the desk sharply as if to show how solid it was. "You're standing in the best Gym in Kanto. By the time you get to this stage, the path has become terribly steep. Eight Gyms, and at each one, more trainers fall by the wayside. And then you have the _League_ to deal with."

Kantaris was a little alarmed. She wanted to question his bitter tone of voice but decided against it. He was probably just trying to discourage her. It was true that the Pokémon League was Team Rocket's enemy, but Giovanni had well and truly pulled the wool over their eyes by becoming one of their trusted Gym Leaders. The League had always treated him well, naming him one of Kanto's most powerful and respected figures. They had no idea that he was in charge of Team Rocket, or if they did, they didn't dare to do anything about it. Kantaris could see no reason why he would be bitter. She knew that if she were in his position, she would be cheerfully laughing behind the League's back at every given opportunity.

"But if that is what you want, I'm not really in a position to stop you."

Kantaris was sure that she must have misheard. "You're not?"

"I don't legally own you. Even if I were your guardian, you're no longer a child. I can't stop you from following the path that you choose."

_Legally._ To hear the leader of Team Rocket using that word was surreal. Kantaris might even have laughed were it not for the uncomfortable atmosphere. Although she liked to think that she trusted Giovanni – and she made a mental note to ask about the 'guardian' issue some other time – she was sceptical. It was a cold, hard fact that few people got out of Team Rocket alive. Not for long, at least. Giovanni often told them that they could walk away. They often _did_ walk away. It was just that they didn't get very far. There was a reason why the Boss kept a gun and a stash of bullets in the top drawer of his desk. Such a stark fate was reserved for Rockets who knew too much – but Kantaris knew that she fell into that category.

"What are you thinking, Sophia?"

"I'm thinking that I don't fancy being shot in the back as soon as I turn to leave."

Giovanni looked a little offended. "Well, at least you're honest. In some ways."

"And how about you?" she asked. "Are you honest?" _I'm asking the leader of a crime syndicate if he's honest. _Kantaris scratched her head and glanced at the floor. _I must be insane._

"That depends on the question."

"Would you really let me take the Gym Challenge?"

"I already gave you my permission."

"I don't want to leave Team Rocket," Kantaris added hastily. "I just want to take some time to better myself. For the good of the team."

_For the good of the team indeed._ Giovanni placed both of his hands flat on the desk as if to prove that he was unarmed. "As I said, I can't stop you from following your chosen path."

"You could." Kantaris glanced towards the left drawer of the desk.

"After everything I did for you, you think I would terminate things so casually? Have you forgotten what I said about family, Sophia? You have a few strikes to go before I'd consider doing such a thing."

"Well, even if you just _told _me not to go, you know I wouldn't."

"As long as you stay under the Team Rocket banner, I will only stand in your way as the Leader of this Gym – and that's just a formality. But, I suppose, if you made it that far you would already be well on your way."

"Thank you." Kantaris wanted to sigh with relief, but she decided to save it until she was well out of harm's reach. "If you ever needed me anywhere, I would do as you ordered. I'm a Rocket before anything else."

"I should hope so. And Team Rocket has taught you to be ruthless, has it not? Apply that attitude to the Gym Challenge and you'll go far. But never forget where you belong."

There was no going back now. Kantaris half-wished that she hadn't been so hasty in packing and leaving the flat, as much as she hated the place. As she walked through the Gym, she felt as though she was in a daze. Giovanni never made his feelings obvious, but it was likely and understandable that he would be miserable about last week's events. Of course, Kantaris knew that she was Giovanni's subordinate, and she never doubted that he was much stronger than her in every way, but sometimes she felt almost protective towards him, even from a distance.

Although Rockets were ordered to suppress their feelings, they tended to look out for each other, particularly members of the Black Squad. When they were alone with people they trusted, they could let off steam. Without that outlet, they would probably go crazy. Kantaris had learned to deal with things on her own, mainly because she had no real friends to confide in. But who was around to look out for the Boss? The Executives didn't care. Sometimes, Kantaris thought they looked more like a circling gang of vultures, squabbling over shreds of authority and status – but she was probably just jealous.

* * *

The country road out of Viridian City was strangely quiet. Kantaris paused for a few moments and looked around, feeling more than a little stupid. There was a trio of Pidgeys in a nearby bush but they didn't appeal to her. She wanted something more impressive. Something rarer and stronger. But there was nothing in sight. She hadn't thought about this, hadn't considered the long periods of walking, the silence and the boredom. The Gym Challenge was quickly losing its appeal.

She heard a rustling noise in the tall grass at the side of the road and released her Cyndaquil, who grunted in discontentment at being disturbed from its almost constant sleep. Kantaris stood poised with an empty Pokéball in her hand, waiting for whatever was in the bushes to show itself, while Cyndaquil walked around in tiny circles at its trainer's feet before flopping onto the ground. After a few moments, a cute Pokémon face emerged from the grass, twitching its nose. A brown and white bushy tail rose up behind its head.

"An Eevee!" Kantaris kicked Cyndaquil. "Tackle! Come on, stupid Pokémon, what are you waiting for?"

Her Pokémon was used to being kicked. It rolled over, stood up and yawned but completely ignored her order. Kantaris growled in frustration, wishing that she had brought her whip. Then a male voice made her jump. "Go, Totodile! Tackle that Eevee!"

A small blue crocodile rushed forward like a blur and toppled the bewildered Eevee just yards away from where Kantaris was standing. It followed its tackle with a sharp Water Gun attack. Before Kantaris had the chance to react, the Totodile's trainer ran into view, tossing a Pokéball smartly as he ran. The Eevee was swept up into red energy and captured inside the Pokéball.

"Hey!" Kantaris yelled. "I saw it first!"

Her hand automatically went to her coat pocket and her fingers closed around her pistol, but she forced herself to let go of it at once. Instead, she watched as the Pokéball wobbled and she willed the wild Eevee to break free so that she could have a shot at it. But it didn't. As the light went out, signalling a successful capture, Kantaris grimly turned to face the trainer responsible for this outright theft. He was perhaps the same age as her, maybe a little younger. His hairstyle and freckles made him look somewhat boyish. He certainly had a teenager's cheeky grin. He picked up the Pokéball and Kantaris was not amused.

"Don't you just hate it when that happens?" he asked.

"I sure do."

"No hard feelings, honey. Your Cyndaquil looks a little, uh...slow. I'm Ivan, by the way."

"Great."

"Aren't you gonna tell me your name?"

"Kantaris."

"Is that your _real _name?" Ivan asked sceptically.

"What's it to you?" Kantaris pressed the button on Cyndaquil's Pokéball and the Pokémon returned. She violently hit the Pokéball from above with a clenched fist, hoping that it might rattle Cyndaquil's brains.

"Hey, I recognise you." Ivan narrowed his eyes at her. Luckily, he did not mention Team Rocket. Instead, he scratched his cheek and said, "Weren't you at the Stadium last year?"

"Maybe. Why?"

"Yeah, that's right! You _were_ there! You were that chick with the Misdreavus that knew how to use Thunder!" He pointed towards his chest with both thumbs in a rather grandiose gesture. "Don't you remember me?"

"No."

"We battled in round two!"

Kantaris could only remember the medal that she'd won. Maybe, if she thought hard, she could also remember the semi-final and the final. But the second round? She rolled her eyes. She couldn't remember this guy at all, ergo he couldn't possibly have been much of a a challenge. She suddenly felt impatient to carry on her way. But what Ivan said next annoyed her even further.

"You're a mobster, right?"

"That's a pretty specific choice of word," she replied irritably. In fact, of all the words for what she was, 'mobster' was her pet hate. It conjured up black and white images of cigar-smoking, gun-toting Mafiosi – and it hit just a little close to home.

"But I'm right, aren't I? I saw you hanging around after the closing ceremonies with those Rockets. Friends of yours, were they?"

"It's really none of your business."

"Heck, I gotta hand it to you!" he exclaimed, giving her an unwanted pat on the back. "You thrashed me! I couldn't believe it when you won! But you thought you were real good. You're just like all the other Rockets."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You just got lucky, that's all. That's the problem with you Rockets, isn't it? You gang up on law-abiding trainers, throwing your weight around, thinking you're tough. But once you have to stand on your own two feet without your little mob, without using _other people's Pokémon_, you're all pathetic."

_Mob_? Kantaris was silently fuming. How did he know that those Pokémon hadn't been hers? She had controlled them well, they'd listened to her and everything had gone as perfectly as possible. Oh, but she had a trump card. One of those Pokémon had been her own – and still was.

"That tournament meant everything to me," the boy continued. "I wasn't good enough to battle for real outside the Stadium. I worked my ass off that summer but instead, it went to the person who deserved it least: you."

Kantaris yanked the first Pokéball from her belt. "I hope you're ready for another ass-kicking. You've earned it."

"Oh, a battle?" Ivan laughed. "I'll be using my Eevee to start, then."

Kantaris gave him the dirtiest look that she could muster and threw her Pokéball up into the air with a flick of her wrist. "Stella! It's time to meet an old friend."

Ivan's eyes glazed over a little when he saw Kantaris' Misdreavus. So, that one really _was_ hers, unless she had stolen it from somewhere. _Impressive_, he thought. Kantaris caught Stella's empty Pokéball as it descended.

"Let's start with a Confuse Ray!" she ordered, shielding her eyes as Stella launched a glittering ray of light upon Eevee.

"Quick Attack!" Ivan commanded, hoping to land an attack before the confusion set in.

Kantaris gave no order for Stella to dodge the attack; she merely smiled in amusement as Eevee ran and leapt, passing straight through the ghostly Pokémon without leaving so much as a mark. The Misdreavus giggled.

Ivan looked as though he was racking his brain. "Leer...?"

The Confuse Ray had set in by now. Eevee's eyes glowed as it prepared to perform a Leer attack but the glow flickered and died as the Pokémon fainted. Ivan withdrew it with a grumble. Hovering a few feet in the air, Stella performed a small victory dance. Kantaris couldn't help but laugh. What kind of trainer would send a weakened Pokémon into battle when none of its attacks would even work against the opponent? _The same kind of trainer who'd lose in the second round of a beginners' tournament._

Ivan's Totodile was dancing around beside him, raring to go. Now he nudged it forward. "Water Gun!"

Totodile sprayed Stella with a quick but weak stream of water. Stella did not have time to dodge the attack but she shook the water off. Her eyes flashed angrily.

"Psywave!"

Only too happy to oblige, Stella let loose a wave of purple, green and blue energy that was scarcely visible. Totodile fell backwards as the attack hit but recovered quickly and got back on its feet. Kantaris had run out of patience.

"Finish it off with Thunder," she ordered.

She wished that she had done that in the first place: she could have wiped that Totodile out with one hit. Sparks of electricity flew through the air and hit Totodile full on. It collapsed without a sound and the battle was over.

"How can a ghost Pokémon use an electric attack? You're a cheat!"

"Ever heard of TM moves?"

Ivan reached into his pocket and took out a heap of change. "Here. I know the rules. It's all I have."

Kantaris snatched it out of his hand. "Just stay out of my way." Beckoning Stella, she began to walk away with her Pokémon beside her; she wanted the company.

"Stay out of your way?" Ivan followed Kantaris at a safe distance. "You're on the Gym Challenge, right?"

"You're starting to freak me out." _I never told him that I was on the Gym Challenge, did I?_

"I'm on the Gym Challenge, too!"

"How nice for you."

Kantaris exchanged an amused glance with Stella, who was pretending to fall asleep in mid-air. They quickened their pace with no intention of turning around again. Soon enough, Ivan gave up and stopped following them.

"You can't avoid me!" he called out with an air of finality. "We're rivals now!"

Stella turned around and pulled a face at Ivan. He didn't see it. He was already going back the other way. The wrong way.


	3. An Old Acquaintance

**DISCLAIMER:** I don't own Pokemon, any of its characters or any of its place names. If I did, it would be full of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll and wouldn't be suitable for kiddies. This story is rated for occasional bad language, mild innuendo and a few references to drugs and violence. It won't break your eyes, I promise.

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: **First Gym battle! Also, I almost want to apologise for the way Kantaris treats some of her Pokémon – but she is a Rocket, after all, and maybe someday she'll know better...

* * *

_**Chapter 3**_

_**An Old Acquaintance & Some New Recruits**_

Sunlight was streaming into the room through the window above the bed, revealing the dust in the air as Kantaris stood up and stretched. She had spent the night at a Pokémon centre. Free accommodation was one of the perks of the Gym Challenge. Maybe it could even be enough to encourage her to continue. Those rooms were even nicer than her own room back in Saffron City. But today she had to tackle Viridian Forest, where there would surely be lots of chances to catch some Pokémon – hopefully some _decent _Pokémon.

Standing at the edge of the forest within an hour of waking up, Kantaris was pleased to see that it didn't look quite as big or dark as she'd always imagined it to be. That was a good thing. She had badges on her mind and she couldn't wait to get to Pewter City. But, at the same time, she was nervous. Although she tended to act without much forethought, she knew that if she went rushing into the Gym with only one Pokémon – Cyndaquil didn't count, since it was so useless – she would lose outright. A Gym Leader would have more than just one Pokémon and they would not be pushovers. If she wanted a chance, she would have to catch something.

For someone who had never legitimately caught a Pokémon before, it was a daunting concept. Nets and stun guns had always seemed much easier – and much more sensible. But since she wasn't carrying either of those things, Kantaris walked through the forest clutching a Pokéball in her hand, gazing up into the branches of the trees. As she was walking, she passed small groups of trainers. Some were battling; others were taking a break. Either way, they were not watching their bags and Kantaris couldn't resist the temptation: she made off with some food and money. No Pokémon, unfortunately. It seemed that these trainers were not so dumb as to leave their Pokémon lying around unattended. That was a shame.

A few hours later, Kantaris' stomach was rumbling despite the snacks that she had stolen. Just as she was wondering how long it would take her to get into Pewter City, she heard something hit the ground behind her and she turned around. A small Pineco had fallen out of a tree. Although she didn't particularly want such a pathetic-looking Pokémon, she hurled a Pokéball at it and instantly dived upon the ball, holding it shut in the hope that its captive wouldn't be able to break free. It shook violently in her hands for a few seconds before becoming still. Kantaris stood up, dusted the mud and moss off the Pokéball and fitted it to her belt with a sigh.

"Well, that wasn't as bad as I thought," she said. She wiped her brow, unwittingly leaving a streak of mud on her forehead.

Less than a hundred steps later, she was unhappy again. A Pineco probably wouldn't do much good in a Gym battle, in which case it had been a waste of a stolen Pokéball. Kantaris wished that she could make the stupid thing evolve, right there and then. She remembered, again, the lethargy that had prevented her from taking the Gym Challenge in the past. She even stopped in her tracks for a few moments and looked back over her shoulder, wondering whether she should just give up and go back to Viridian City. Then she imagined Giovanni's disapproving frown and she shuddered.

The forest rapidly grew thinner until, finally, Kantaris found herself in open countryside once again. She could not yet see the old grey walls of her first destination. The mountains that surrounded Cerulean City dominated the horizon. As Kantaris continued to walk along the path, she was sure that she could hear something apart from her own footsteps and she stood still to listen. It was coming from the grass, less than a metre away from where she was standing. When she crept in the direction of the sound, she saw a group of Oddish; it looked as though they were having play battles. Another wimpy Pokémon was not what she wanted, but she decided to test her Pineco. She released it.

_What attacks does a Pineco have?_ Kantaris had no idea, so she decided to play it safe. "Tackle!"

Pineco obeyed. It did something, at least. Oddish responded with what looked like an Absorb attack. To Kantaris' shock, Pineco suddenly self-destructed and returned to its Pokéball. She felt the sudden hit on her belt as it did so. _If it does that again_, she thought angrily, _I'll blow it up for good_. She threw a Pokéball at the battered Oddish and it was captured, this time with no struggle at all.

"Great," Kantaris muttered to herself as she picked it up. "So, now I have a fat Cyndaquil that doesn't listen to me and an exploding pine cone."

The road remained lonely, giving her no opportunity to train. She reached Pewter City in the midst of a quiet storm. It was raining, and the Rocket's mood matched the weather perfectly. She headed for the Pokémon Centre. While she was waiting, her gaze fell on a stocky man using the phone. At first, she noticed him because he was using it without turning the video screen on. There could have been a mundane explanation. Maybe the person on the other end of the line didn't have a videophone. But it made Kantaris suspicious. She herself was almost always doing things that she shouldn't be doing, thus leading her to presume that other people were doing the same.

Then she realised that she recognised the guy. He was the one who did deliveries for Team Rocket, the guy who regularly gave her a lift to Viridian City, the one whom the Boss called 'the messenger'. He was out of uniform, but she knew his face, although he didn't usually look so serious. When he had finished his hush-hush phone call, he took the seat next to her. She cleared her throat to get his attention. She had to do so a few times before he even glanced at her, but when he did, his eyes lit up and he smiled. The expression looked as though it had suddenly been glued onto his face after the sternness with which he'd conducted his phone call.

"Hey, it's you!" he said brightly. "I didn't recognise you without the get-up."

"I almost didn't recognise you either," she replied.

"You don't half get around."

"What does that mean?" Kantaris asked with a laugh.

"Well, you're always shirking work and going to the Gym instead." The nameless Rocket paused to grin at the look on his teammate's face. "And now I run into you here in Pewter City. What gives?"

"I'll have you know that I have a good reason to be here!" she exclaimed, still pretending to be offended.

"Ah. Unlike your outings to Viridian City, huh? No good reason for those?"

This was the first time he'd ever really mentioned the 'joyrides'. Kantaris was unsure what to say in reply. An uneasy silence followed, which was thankfully broken by the sound of Nurse Joy calling for Kantaris: her Pokémon were ready to be collected. As she stood up and walked towards the counter, she was vaguely aware of her colleague following her with his eyes. She had been intending to leave for the Pewter Gym as soon as she got her Pokémon back, but she decided that she had time for a chat instead.

After putting her Pokéballs back on her belt. Kantaris returned to the chair in which she had been sitting. She glanced at the incognito Rocket beside her, took a cigarette out of her pocket and lit it, shielding it behind her free hand to conceal it. She held the lit cigarette down by the side of her chair, trying to be as subtle as possible: Pokémon Centres were strictly non-smoking places and she was not in the mood for drama.

"Let me guess. You're here to do some shopping. Or some other girly excuse."

"Watch it, you."

"Oh, that's right. You're a city chick. You've got enough shops where you come from."

"That's enough about me. What about you? You never told me where you're based. Saffron or Celadon?"

"Saffron and Celadon aren't the only two towns in the world, you know."

"Haha," Kantaris said sarcastically. "Where are you from, then, smartass?"

"I'm from Viridian City."

"But I thought you did deliveries to Viridian?"

"Nope. Other way around. I do deliveries _to_ Saffron _from_ Viridian."

"Aren't you a bit too important to be doing deliveries?" Kantaris asked. She had always presumed that he was an Elite from the silver uniform that he was usually wearing.

"I do important deliveries," he replied with a smile.

"And is that what brings you to Pewter City?"

"I'm just passing through on my way to Cerulean. Meeting with some people and collecting some feedback. Nothing interesting."

"People? Who? Our people?"

"Scientists. Dry, boring scientists."

"But are they _our_ scientists?" Kantaris decided to try her luck. "What are they working on?"

"I have no idea. And if I did, I couldn't tell you. My neck would be on the line if I did."

Kantaris sighed and thought for a moment. She hadn't heard of any major research projects going on recently. She knew that Team Rocket sometimes commissioned scientists for this and that, but she had no idea what it was about. She was clueless when it came to science. It was just the thrill of something secretive and potentially big that made her want to know, even if she wouldn't understand it. The solution, of course, was obvious.

She dropped her cigarette and stamped on it quickly, flicking it under the chair with her foot. "I'm on my way to Cerulean, too," she said. "I'd be glad of the company."

"Alright, but first let me say that it's pretty weird how we've been seeing each other at least once a month for the best part of a year and yet I still don't know your name." The animated way in which he spoke made Kantaris laugh. He nudged her. "Come on. What's your name? I won't tell anyone."

"I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours."

"It's a deal."

"I'm Kantaris."

"Kantaris?" He looked cynical. "I'm glad you didn't make me guess. I would never have got that. Are you Spanish or something?"

Kantaris shook her head. "No, no. You can't ask me any more questions until you've told me _your _name."

"Michael. But my friends call me Jet."

"Really? Why?"

"It's because I'm a world-class pilot." His grin broadened at the look of surprise on her face. "Only kidding. I dunno where it comes from. Nicknames just happen, right? And you're a Grunt?" Jet checked himself. "Sorry. You're part of the _Black Squad_? Is that what you call yourselves these days?"

"You must have known that already," Kantaris replied.

"Well, I thought you were but I just couldn't figure out why – "

"Why a Grunt would be riding around with an Elite in a delivery truck?"

"Hey, I'm not complaining."

Kantaris smiled wryly. "So, how's about it? We can set off after I've been to the Gym."

"Wait, wait. Did you just say 'the Gym'?" Jet laughed. "As in, the official Pokémon League Gym?"

"That's the one."

"Let me get this straight..." He lowered his voice. "You're gonna raid the Pewter City Gym all by yourself?"

"I'm not raiding anything. I'm battling for a badge."

Jet's eyebrows shot up and disappeared beneath his messy fringe. "No kidding?"

"No kidding. And Cerulean City will be my next stop after here. Do you want to travel together or not?"

"I don't see why not." The Elite Rocket pretended to look her up and down suspiciously. "We've been making trips together for a while and nothing bad has happened to me so far. Meet me back here at six and we'll set off. My overseer isn't expecting me to be away for too long and she keeps tabs on me so, if you're not here by six, I'll have to leave all on my lonesome."

"Alright. Six o'clock."

* * *

When she arrived at the Gym, Kantaris pushed the doors gingerly, unsure what to expect. She had only been in one other Pokémon Gym, and that place was always so _dark_. The only light came from the balcony – and the glass dome in the roof, but that hadn't been cleaned for years – and the air over the battlefield was cold, the kind of cold that seeps through clothes and bites at skin. It was even colder than the bare stone floor and walls, but nowhere near as cold as the welcome that Giovanni gave to his challengers.

But the Pewter City Gym was something quite different. It was built into the side of a small hill, but it was warm and almost cosy inside. The doors opened onto a narrow passageway of bumpy rocks, amongst which a bronze plaque was embedded, with hundreds of names engraved onto it. They had been written in such tiny script that they were illegible. Kantaris guessed that these were names of previous victors. It looked as though the plaque wasn't in use anymore: it was completely filled up. _I guess I'll have to scratch my name in the wall afterwards_, she thought.

A voice in the darkness made her jump. "Can I see your trainer card, please?"

For one terrible moment, she froze, feeling as though her insides had turned to mush. The man standing in front of her was wearing a smart-casual suit emblazoned with the Indigo League's logo on its pocket. _A League official. _Kantaris swallowed hard and cowered a little as she handed over her trainer card. _This is where I get found out_, she thought, her mouth as dry as the rocks around her as the League official scanned the card using a device which he wore around his neck. Kantaris could feel her stomach turning over while he read the screen.

"This is your first Gym battle?" he asked.

"Uh-huh."

"No problem." At last, his face broke into a smile. "You must be nervous."

"I'll say," Kantaris muttered under her breath, still waiting for him to declare that she was a Rocket, at which point the Gym Leader would probably come running and give her the beating of her life.

"Would you like to follow me?"

He turned around and began to walk down the corridor. Kantaris noticed the flags tucked into his back pocket. She took a deep breath, glancing over her shoulder momentarily before following him to a sandy space that was marked out as a battlefield. Like the Viridian Gym, it had a glass domed roof, but this one let in much more light. The place was much smaller, too. Kantaris took her bag off her shoulders and dropped it at her feet, stirring up a cloud of dust that invaded her nose and sent her into a fit of dry sneezing, which she tried to stifle as the League official spoke from the sidelines.

"Sofia Kantaris from Viridian City, for her first badge."

_My card says I'm from Viridian City? __That's new._

A different voice followed this announcement, this one a little deeper. "Welcome to Pewter City Gym."

Kantaris looked up slowly, warily, not wanting to make eye contact with anyone. The Gym Leader – if that was who he was – seemed to notice her apprehension.

"In a Pokémon Gym, the battle doesn't start until you make the challenge. That's why you're called the 'challenger'."

Kantaris looked up properly. She was surprised to see that the Gym Leader had only three Pokéballs on his belt – which he wasn't wearing, but simply holding in his hand.

"When did you start training, Sofia?"

"Uh...a while ago."

"I see. Well, in that case, I should expect a good battle with you." The Gym Leader waited for a response or a challenge, but Kantaris said nothing. To kill the awkward silence, he kept talking. "Well, my name's Brock. This is my family's Gym."

It was common for Pokémon Gyms to be kept within families. This was a tradition that went back a few centuries. Back then, to be in the nobility you had to prove yourself to be a great Pokémon trainer. The best were eventually given control over their respective counties and set up establishments to test the mettle of the local trainers who wanted to show their worth. The Gym Leaderships were always handed down to someone else in the family – as long as there was somebody worthy of it. These days, it was rare to find a Gym that still belonged to the same lineage as when it had first been founded. Most Gyms had undergone a complete change of hands at some point in history. As for Brock, if his family had once been nobles, he had decided not to mention it.

"I guess I'm here for my Boulder Badge."

"I accept your challenge. My standard practice is the recommended three-on-three. The League official will stay here as an overseer, and if you have any complaints or queries, you can take it up with him afterwards. Do you have any objection to that?"

Kantaris gave the League official another wary glance. "That's fine."

_What am I supposed to do? Do I start?_ Just as she was wondering, Brock threw in his first Pokéball. "Geodude, go!"

The Pokéball landed on the ground and fell open. _A rock Pokémon._ _Okay, stop worrying. Concentrate on types._

"Oddish!" She took the last Pokéball on her belt and tossed it into the ring. Oddish was raring to go. The leaves on its head were bouncing enthusiastically. "Absorb attack!"

"Defence Curl!" Brock commanded.

Geodude rolled into a tight ball, shielding its head with its arms. Kantaris saw the Absorb attack. It was definitely there, an aura of green light surrounding its opponent. _That's a grass-type attack. It has to work. _But Geodude's Defence Curl must have made it stronger; it showed no sign of weakening.

"Tackle!" Still in its Defence Curl position, Geodude began to roll towards Oddish at alarming speed. Oddish didn't move.

"Move, then!" Kantaris yelled_._ "I shouldn't have to tell you to get out of the way! Now try another Absorb!" _I don't know any other grass-type attacks_, she realised. Maybe Oddish didn't either.

Having missed its target by less than an inch, Geodude rolled over on the battlefield and set itself back up, waiting for the next command. "Defense Curl followed by Tackle!"

_They're too close to each other._ Kantaris didn't have time to say anything, nor did Oddish have time to move. Geodude knocked it straight off its feet and it flew backwards, almost clearing the edge of the battlefield. Instead of catching it to break its fall, Kantaris stepped aside.

"Get up and use Poison Powder!" she ordered. She didn't see how a poison attack could affect a rock Pokémon, but anything was worth a try. "Come on, hurry up!"

Oddish scrambled to its feet and ran past its trainer, shaking the small leaves on its head and producing a purple cloud of dust which clung to Geodude as if the rock Pokémon were made of sticky paper. It started to roll around in the sand, trying to shake the dust off, but most of it stuck fast.

"Mud Slap, Geodude!" Geodude dug its hand into the battlefield and raised a clump of sand and dirt which it hurled towards Oddish.

"Out of the way!" _Attack. Need an attack._ "Razor Leaf!"

Oddish scurried out of the path of the oncoming clod of dirt and showered its opponent with tiny but sharp leaves. Without being commanded, Geodude retreated back into its defensive position. The leaves merely grazed off its arms and its sides.

"Tackle, Geodude!" Geodude began to roll towards Oddish again.

"Jump up and use Absorb!"

Geodude's rolling tackle passed straight underneath Oddish's feet as it leapt into the air. As soon as the Grass Pokémon landed, it instigated the Absorb attack. This time it worked. Geodude stopped mid-roll, spun around on the battlefield and collapsed onto its back, its arms out, exhausted.

"Geodude is unable to battle!" the League official announced, raising a flag in the hand which was nearest to Kantaris. "This round goes to the challenger!"

"Alright!" Brock sounded strangely pleased as he called back his Pokémon and sent out the next. "Zubat!"

Kantaris took Oddish's Pokéball in her hand. _Should I switch?_ Oddish was at a definite disadvantage now. Then again, she didn't see much point in wasting time by changing Pokémon. They might as well battle until they fainted.

"Tackle!" Brock ordered, before she could make up her mind.

Zubat dived through the air in a sharp, deadly curve and struck Oddish full-on. The hit sent the grass Pokémon flying. Once again, Kantaris did not budge. She heard the Gym Leader flinch with a pained 'oh' sound as Oddish hit the wall behind her, but her only reaction was to silently withdraw it with a shrug. Brock was surprised – a little shocked, even. Rookie trainers were usually unaccustomed to seeing their Pokémon getting hurt. Occasionally they would even run onto the battlefield to block a hit – which was foolish and dangerous, of course, but it was understandable. Brock's Pokémon had been trained to stop their attacks within nanoseconds, just in case this ever happened. But he was pretty sure that this challenger wouldn't be running onto the battlefield any time soon.

"Oddish is unable to battle! This round goes to the Gym Leader!"

Kantaris' poker-faced expression suddenly became a smile. She tapped Stella's Pokéball three times with her fingernail. Usually she would save the best until last, but she couldn't wait this time. There would be other opportunities for restraint.

Before Stella made herself visible, her haunting shriek was heard echoing around the battlefield. Zubat let out a cry of fear and began to flap its wings faster. Kantaris only smiled. She was used to that sound by now – and she still hated it, if she was honest, but she loved to watch other people's reactions.

As soon as Stella appeared, her trainer seized the chance straight away. "Thunder!"

The ghost Pokémon's eyes began to glow and a field of static electricity swelled around her, sending sparks hurtling through the air towards her opponent. The aim was quite bad this time, but Zubat screeched as it was hit by a stray bolt. It plummeted to the ground. _A one-hit knockout?_ Kantaris clicked her tongue as the bat Pokémon got up. _Maybe not._ It was not too much of a disappointment. Stella's Thunder attack could never be as strong as it would if it came from an electric Pokémon; it was more of a surprise tactic than anything else. Opponents didn't expect it.

"Can you still fly, Zubat?" Brock asked. Zubat looked strained as it took to the air again. "Good! Bite attack!"

Kantaris smirked, even as Zubat flew straight towards Stella with its teeth bared. _That's not going to work._ She presumed that it was a normal-type attack, but she was wrong. Feeding off her trainer's confidence, Stella made no move to dodge her opponent. She was struck in the throat and disappeared for a few seconds as she always did after being hit by an effective attack.

"Supersonic!" Brock commanded.

"Hypnosis!"

Both trainers looked away and covered their ears as the Pokémon generated their attacks simultaneously. All that Kantaris could hear was a low hum and, eventually, the clear sound of a thud. That was Zubat hitting the battlefield, sent into a deep sleep by Stella's Hypnosis attack.

Brock shook his head. "I'm withdrawing Zubat. I don't have anything to wake it up." He turned to the League official. "You can go ahead and call it."

"This round goes to the challenger!"

"And my final Pokémon..."

Kantaris paled as a huge Onix reared up on the battlefield, threw its head back and roared. She had always hated huge Pokémon, along with most Steel Pokémon. At least it wasn't a Steelix. "Shadow Ball, now!"

Stella produced a black and purple ball of energy and shot it at her opponent. The rock snake's intimidating roar turned into a groan as it fell backwards, shaking the whole room as it hit the ground. To Kantaris' dismay, it rose to its full height again.

"Rock Throw!"

Onix raised rocks out of nowhere and pointed at Stella with its tail as if it was controlling an army of stones. As if they had a mind of their own, the rocks hurtled towards Stella at a scary speed; Kantaris was too busy covering her own head to avoid being hit, although the attack stayed firmly on the battlefield and she was out of harm's way. Stella skilfully dodged the attack by disappearing and reappearing, but the final boulder came straight down onto her head. Out of the corner of her eye, Kantaris saw her Pokémon crashing down onto the battlefield. _If Stella's gone_, she thought, _I might as well forfeit right now_.

"Finish it off with another Rock Throw!"

"Destiny Bond!"

Wavering in the air, Stella closed her eyes. A blue aura surrounded both Pokémon. Brock drew in a sharp breath as he realised what was going on, but it was too late. Onix was already attacking and Stella didn't get out of the way. Although she insisted that she had nerves of steel, Kantaris didn't enjoy seeing her Misdreavus faint. She looked away until Stella had dissipated into vapour. In the same moment, Onix uttered a single cry of surprise as the Destiny Bond sapped its strength. The rock snake fell to the floor.

"Onix is unable to battle! Victory goes to the challenger!"

"Okay," Brock said calmly. "You win. I've seen enough of your battling skills to know that you're worthy of this badge."

Brock wiped his hands on his green button-up shirt and unfastened the small badge that was pinned to his collar. Kantaris guessed that this was a Boulder Badge. She was about to go and get it for herself, but Brock began to cross the battlefield towards her_. That's noble of him. I bet Giovanni would never do that._ Stunned, she took the badge and shook hands with Brock. He even smiled at her. _Maybe this Gym Challenge business won't be so bad after all._

"Don't forget your prize money," he said, handing her a small bag. "Trainers don't get far without some cash behind them, right?"

_I'll bet Giovanni never gives out money if he loses_. Kantaris picked up her bag and turned around to leave, but she was stopped by the League official's hand on her shoulder. Once again, her breath froze in her throat.

"Just a second, don't forget your card! I've logged your victory for you." Kantaris took her trainer card and pocketed it. "This is just standard procedure," the official added, noticing her fearful expression. "You'll get used to it."

Although she knew that she shouldn't ask, Kantaris couldn't help it. "Why...?"

"There are fake badges flying around out there. When you get to Indigo Plateau – which I'm sure you will – they'll check your card as well as your badges."

Kantaris certainly knew where those fake badges came from.

It was still raining outside, much heavier than before. Just as she was about to search through her bag for the cap that belonged with her Team Rocket uniform, something was pulled down onto her head. It was a hat, but it was too big for her. She had to push it up so that she could see. When she did so, she found herself looking up at Jet. His brown hair looked a lot longer now that it was wet and plastered to his forehead; it reached past his brow, almost to his eyes.

"Are you gonna let me see this badge or what?" he asked.

"Oh!"

Kantaris dug it out of her pocket and held it in the palm of her hand. It wasn't that impressive, nothing more than a brown and grey hexagon, but at least it was real. She pinned it to the right breast pocket of her coat.

"Is this yours?" she asked, reaching up and touching the hat on her head.

"Nope. It fell out of the sky." Jet snickered. "Of course it's mine."

"Well,_ you_ should be wearing it. You're getting drenched."

"I don't mind the rain. I know you girls and your hair." Jet poked the badge on Kantaris' coat and started to jog. "Come on, I'll race you back to the Pokémon Centre!"


	4. The Dancing Clefairy

**DISCLAIMER:** I don't own Pokemon, any of its characters or any of its place names. If I did, it would be full of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll and wouldn't be suitable for kiddies. This story is rated for occasional bad language, mild innuendo and a few references to drugs and violence. It won't break your eyes, I promise.

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:** ...

* * *

_**Chapter 4**_

_**The Dancing Clefairy**_

"I give! Stop! You win!"

Kantaris leaned against the side of the Pokémon Centre. She wished she'd never agreed to race against Jet, but she couldn't turn down a challenge, even when she knew full well that she was an appalling runner. At first, Jet laughed. Then he started to look worried.

"Hey, are you okay?"

"I'm fine," she panted. "You sure live up to your nickname!"

"Maybe we should run all the way to the mountains. You're the most unfit Rocket I've ever seen!"

"I'm more of a stay-at-home Rocket."

It was a good thing that Jet had only been joking about running to Mount Moon: if Kantaris had tried to do that, it would probably have killed her. The road was steep, rocky and winding, and much longer than she had anticipated. Kantaris spent the whole journey trying to flag down some trainers for a battle but she was unsuccessful. People avoided eye contact at all costs, probably because they were in the middle of nowhere with no Pokémon Centre in sight. Although Jet was great company and they spent most of their time laughing, Kantaris was bored out of her mind.

"If you want to battle that bad," Jet said at last, "I'll take you on."

Kantaris narrowed her eyes as their gazes met. "Are you sure?" she asked. "I have a badge, you know."

"I know. But I'll give it a go." He was obviously not as concerned as she was. She got the feeling that he wasn't a battler.

Kantaris nodded stiffly and the two Rockets paced in opposite directions, just like a showdown out of an old Western movie. They turned to face each other. Jet had only one Pokéball on his belt and Kantaris was a little disappointed to find that this was the only Pokémon that he was carrying. She'd been hoping for a gruelling, all-out contest, a real chance to show her skill, but it seemed that it wasn't going to happen.

Jet took the Pokéball from his belt and held it at arm's length. "Let's go, Fearow!"

A majestic Fearow appeared on the makeshift battlefield between the two trainers. It cawed loudly and scratched at the ground, leaving deep groove marks in the dirt with its sharp talons. Kantaris frowned thoughtfully as she looked down at her belt, her gaze settling on Cyndaquil's Pokéball. _Should I? They say that a Gym badge makes Pokémon listen to you. Let's find out._ She took hold of the Pokéball and rolled it onto the ground.

"Cyndaquil, Quick Attack!"

Cyndaquil sat back on its laurels and began to scratch the side of its head while its trainer glared daggers at it. _Why won't this thing listen to me?_ Team Rocket apparently had ways of forcing Pokémon to obey orders; Kantaris wondered why she had never considered putting Cyndaquil through something like that. In fact, why hadn't they done that _before_ giving the Pokémon to her in the first place?

"If you don't start making yourself useful right now, I'm gonna throw you off this mountain!"

"Take flight, Fearow!"

Fearow took to the air, creating a mighty gust of wind as it did so. Cyndaquil dug its claws into the ground to avoid being blown away and Kantaris decided to give it one more chance. "Ember!"

She was sure that she heard her Pokémon sigh as it reluctantly stood up. Cyndaquil wasn't in the best of shape: the lack of training had made it tubby and slow. But now, for the first time in ages, the red spots on its back slowly ignited into flame, fuelled by the excess oxygen as it took a deep breath. Kantaris raised her eyebrows.

"Is it gonna attack or what?" Jet asked. "I'm growing old here!"

Before he could finish speaking, Cyndaquil shot a small fireball from its mouth with a loud cry of exertion, falling over at the same time. The attack caught Fearow on its right wing and the bird fell to the ground, landing on its feet but looking unsteady. It tried to take off again, but it wasn't strong enough. The feathers on its right wing were badly singed.

"Peck attack, Fearow!"

"Dodge it with a Quick Attack!"

_I shouldn't have said that_, Kantaris thought. _It probably needs to lose some weight first._ But she was proved wrong. As Fearow charged with its beak, the small fire Pokémon jumped out of the way and rushed at its opponent, striking it in the side of its long neck and knocking it off balance. Fearow toppled over with a squawk and landed on its injured wing. It was the perfect opportunity to end the battle. Kantaris felt a rush of excitement, even though Cyndaquil had fallen onto its back again and appeared to be out of breath.

"Get up and finish it with another Ember attack!"

The fire on Cyndaquil's back doubled in size, but in an act of mercy that was very uncharacteristic of a Rocket, Jet withdrew his helpless Fearow before the attack could hit. The fireball fizzled out in the air.

"You win," he said. "Are you wanting money?"

Kantaris gazed at him, feeling both annoyed and impressed at how little he seemed to care about being defeated. She shook her head. "What's the point of taking money from a fellow Rocket?" she asked. "It all comes from the same place."

She withdrew her exhausted Cyndaquil and Jet stared after her in silence as she set off up the hill ahead of him. _That's a very noble statement coming from a Grunt_, he thought. _Half of them go around begging the Elites to give them handouts._

"There'd better be a Pokémon Centre on this mountain!" Kantaris called back to him.

Jet ran to catch up with her. After another long spell of walking, they came to an immense cliff that rose up in front of them. It would have been a dead end were it not for the tunnel entrance set into the cliff face. Next to the tunnel entrance was a rustic Pokémon Centre, made entirely of logs. Kantaris and Jet stopped there just to get their Pokémon healed and pick up some food. Jet was still in a rush and insisted that they should carry on, despite Kantaris' complaints.

"I'm tired and I want a comfy bed for just _one _night," she said as they left the Pokémon Centre. "Is that so much to ask?"

"Everyone camps out in Mount Moon. Come on, Kantaris. Play the game."

Kantaris had never slept in an tunnel before. The idea didn't appeal to her. But once inside the cave, she began to feel better. It was fully lit, the ceiling lined with strings of lights that were hooked up to several generators. Echoes of laughter and conversation could be heard bouncing off the walls. The atmosphere was good, almost exciting. The dark and the cold were forgotten: inside the tunnel, there was no way of knowing what the weather was like outside. The tunnel gradually widened until it opened out onto a ledge overlooking a huge cavern, so big that it could have been used as a stadium or concert hall. Kantaris followed Jet down the steps that led to the cave floor. The ground at the bottom was not muddy, but covered with thick, soft sand, like an underground beach without the sea. _Maybe it won't be such a bad sleeping place_, Kantaris thought, watching the way the sand shifted gently under her feet.

Jet walked to the edge of the cave, away from the crowds, and threw his coat and hat down next to a cluster of rocks. Kantaris did the same with her bag. "Look after that!"

"I thought you were tired!" Jet protested. "Where are you going? There's nothing to see in here, you know!"

"There are trainers!" Kantaris pointed back over her shoulder with her thumb, gesturing towards the throngs of people at the other side of the cave. "I want to battle!"

Over an hour later, when all of her Pokémon except Stella had fainted – and even she was too exhausted to continue – Kantaris returned to their makeshift camp-site. Jet was asleep, lying on his side with his arms bunched up in front of his chest and his Team Rocket cap pulled down over his face. He was snoring quietly. Kantaris sat down on the soft sand nearby, propped up her bag against a rock and used it as a pillow. It was mostly full of clothes, making it reasonably comfortable. Her coat would do as a blanket.

It seemed as though she was awoken after just a few minutes; Jet was kneeling over her, his hand on her shoulder, whispering her name and shaking her gently.

"What?" Kantaris rubbed her eyes and sat up.

The cave was as quiet now as it had been noisy before. The lights, too, had been dimmed. Kantaris looked around. She could see figures stretched out and curled up on the ground. The cave was full; she and Jet were no longer isolated in their own little corner. There was no sign of movement. Everyone was asleep. She smiled wickedly and looked at Jet who returned her grin.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" he whispered in a husky voice.

"I think so. But it's a bit dark. How are we gonna see what we're doing?"

"You've never done it in the dark before? It's not pitch black. We can still see. As long as we don't trip over – "

"Careful. If we wake anyone up, we'll get busted."

"You're starting to make me think that you didn't come through Rocket Academy, kiddo. Stealth is supposed to be our speciality, right?"

"Hang on a minute." Kantaris grabbed the ankle of his jeans as he walked past her. She looked up at him with a sudden hint of doubt in her eyes. "I'm serious about this Gym Challenge thing. If I get caught lifting Pokémon..."

Jet returned her gaze for a few seconds before nodding. "Hey, you're right. I wasn't thinking. Sorry." To her surprise, he returned to where he'd been sleeping and lay down again as if he had abandoned the idea altogether.

"I wasn't trying to stop_ you _from going!" She shook her head in disgust at herself. "You must think I'm a really pathetic excuse for a Rocket."

"I know it's different when you're off-duty. I don't wanna ruin things for you."

_It's as if I care more about this Gym Challenge than Team Rocket. How selfish of me. _Kantaris looked at Jet again. He had already closed his eyes, so she gave him a nudge. "Let's go." She climbed to her feet, stumbling a little in the sand, and began to walk off before he had the chance to reply.

"Why?" he asked, following her.

"Because it's fun."

Kantaris and Jet made their way up and down the rows of sleeping bodies, assisted by the silencing effect of the sand beneath their feet. They took whatever they could, but it was not as easy or as fruitful as they had anticipated – which was probably for the best, since it was so easy to get carried away when doing these things. Most people had fallen asleep in exhaustion after battling or training, but it was hard to take a Pokéball from someone's belt without them either feeling the tug or hearing the click.

The most generous trainers were the ones who had conveniently removed their belts and left them on the ground. That was easy enough. It was a simple matter of taking the belt out of earshot, replacing the Pokéballs with empty ones and returning the belt. Many people were sleeping on their bags or using them as pillows. It was impossible to get into those, but the ones that were lying around – some of them half-open – were fair game. Most of the stuff that Kantaris took wasn't very interesting, but it would come in useful.

When they got back to where they had been sleeping, the two Rockets were modestly loaded. Kantaris had two sweaters tied around her waist, packets of cookies in her hands and small bundles of money tucked into the waistband of her jeans. Jet was carrying two belts full of Pokémon which he now set about stripping while Kantaris silently bungled the things that she had stolen into her bag. They would barely fit. _I'll have to stop doing this_, she thought, holding back a laugh. _Or steal a bigger bag._

"You didn't get any Pokémon?" Jet whispered. "Wanna keep the Pokéballs I got? You could check them out later. They might be good ones."

Kantaris shook her head and felt her cheeks burning in embarrassment. She was tempted, but the fear of being caught stealing Pokémon whilst on the Gym Challenge was suddenly too great. Other people's Pokémon would never listen to her, she told herself silently. Even though she said nothing aloud, the look on Jet's face said that he understood. He went off alone to put the belts back where they belonged while she tried to go back to sleep, but she was restless and it seemed as though he had been gone for quite a long time. Kantaris eventually sat up, looking around the cave anxiously, but Jet was nowhere to be seen. Squinting at her watch in the poor light, she saw that it was almost four o'clock in the morning. _Where the hell has he gone?_ A few seconds later, a hand touched her arm from behind, making her jump. She managed to suppress a scream.

"Don't sneak up on me like that!" she hissed.

Jet took hold of her arm and helped her to her feet. "You have to see this."

Putting a finger to his lips, he led her down a flight of stone steps to an isolated ledge. He pointed over the side and Kantaris leaned over. The ledge gave a good view of a small chamber that was illuminated by a large, glowing rock. The sight of this may have been enough to make anyone gasp, but there was something even more amazing: dancing around the stone were several small Clefairies, bathed in the eerie glow as they leaped and turned. It almost looked like a ritual dance. Kantaris watched, speechless, as one of the Clefairies began to glow white and change shape. The others stopped dancing and stared. When the glow faded, standing in the place of the Clefairy was –

"A Clefable!"

Kantaris had no Pokéballs with her, but she wasn't about to let that stop her. She jumped down from the ledge at once. The Clefairies ran off before she had even touched the ground, but the Clefable was a little slower. Tripping over the large stone in the middle of the chamber, Kantaris snatched hopelessly at its wings as it scurried off and ducked into a cavern which looked too small for a human to enter. Kantaris looked up to find Jet staring down at her, covering his mouth with his hand to stop himself from laughing aloud. As a consolation prize, she bent down and picked up a small, black piece of rock that she had dislodged from the big stone when she had hit it with her foot. She hoisted herself back onto the ledge and waved it in Jet's face.

"You could have at least fetched a net, you know," he said, his lip quivering with laughter.

"I don't carry one around with me, believe it or not."

"Bet you wish you did. Nice rock you got there."

"It's not just a rock," Kantaris said, hitting him with it lightly. "It was glowing. It has to be something special."

"Moonstone. Makes certain Pokémon evolve."

"See? I told you it wasn't just a rock." Upon consideration, she didn't want to carry it around, so she threw it aside.

Jet was out like a light as soon as his head touched the ground again, but Kantaris didn't manage to get much more sleep. She woke him before six, anxious to make a move, and the two Rockets left silently. When they stepped out into the fresh dawn air, Kantaris felt fully awake and followed Jet's brisk walk with a faint smile on her face. Her first order of business would be to keep following him and get into the laboratory somehow. She would take a peek at whatever Team Rocket's scientists were up to, simply to sate her curiosity, before finding a Pokémon Centre in preparation for her next Gym battle. _This could be a pretty good day._

"This is Cerulean Cape," Jet said, pausing at the brow of a hill that overlooked the city. "It's a popular night spot."

"Well, it's not night. Keep moving."

"Not very romantic, are you?"

Kantaris ignored his question. She was too busy worrying, afraid that Jet would find out soon enough that she was intending to follow him to the lab. In fact, she was surprised he hadn't said anything yet. Maybe he didn't mind. Maybe it wasn't that much of a secret.

"Hey, you! Kantaris!"

Startled, Kantaris stopped walking and looked around, searching for the owner of the voice. She glanced at Jet and was pleased to see that he had stopped walking as well. He was waiting for her after all. But the sight of Ivan walking down the hill did _not_ please her.

"What do you want?" she asked with a scowl.

She looked at Jet again, worried that he was going to run off. Sure enough, he was backing down the hill slowly. The expression on his face was unfathomable, as if he was struggling to decide whether to stay or go. Kantaris opened her mouth to say something.

"I'll meet you at the bottom of the hill, okay?" Jet said, his voice full of uncertainty.

"No! Wait!"

But Jet was already going. He had quickened his pace and soon he was out of earshot. Kantaris was about to follow him straight away but Ivan took hold of her coat sleeve.

"You got your first badge after all? I'm surprised."

"Will you let go of me?" She glared at Ivan. "Where's _your_ badge, anyway?"

"Just because I don't flaunt it, doesn't mean I don't have it. You're inviting thieves, wearing it on the outside of your coat like that."

Kantaris pulled her arm free so violently that her fist caught Ivan on the chin. She started to walk off down the hill, determined to catch up with Jet. Ivan followed her.

"I guess you'll be going to the Gym now?"

Kantaris shook her head vehemently and said nothing. This guy was turning out to be a real pest. She hadn't been on the Gym Challenge for a full month yet and she had already found a pest. _Lovely._

After a few minutes of continuous running, she had reached the bottom of the slope and Ivan was nowhere in sight. She was glad that it had all been downhill. As she paused and waited for her heart to slow, she noticed that the road was surprisingly busy, considering it was so early. She looked around with a hopeless expression on her face, sure that Jet must be far away by now. Growling in anger, she crossed the road and wandered through the crowds with no idea where she was going. She slowed down and eventually stopped searching altogether. She stood on the pavement, looking around at the morning traffic: endless droves of people, all probably on their way to their boring jobs. Kantaris had completely lost her way. She had to accept that she'd lost Jet as well.

Unbeknownst to her, he was closer than she could have imagined. He had ducked into an alleyway off the main road. He had even seen her pause to catch her breath. _She can't run to save her life, poor kid. _Jet waited for a few more minutes before emerging from the alley. He was tempted to run after Kantaris and claim that this had all been a misunderstanding, that he'd never intended to lose her. _But I did intend to lose her. And it's for the best._ He couldn't go after her. He had to have courage in his convictions for once. And as much as he liked the girl, it was blindingly obvious why she had wanted to come to Cerulean City with him.

He didn't even know whether or not he should believe that she was on the Gym Challenge. Alright, so she'd won a badge. But the idea of a Rocket taking on the Pokémon League? It seemed ridiculous to him. She had also been pushing for information about his mission at regular intervals. Jet genuinely knew nothing about whatever was going on, but even if he had, Kantaris would never have gotten it out of him. He would not have been trusted as a high-ranking messenger for Team Rocket if he didn't know how to keep his mouth shut. He didn't take a personal interest in any of his missions; that was why he was good at them.

_But why does she wanna know so badly? How interesting could it possibly be? And why doesn't she just ask the Boss? _That was another thing. She was obviously close to the Boss, whether it was in a professional sense – _How can that be? She's not an Executive._ – or something else. Jet knew all of the squadron leaders in Viridian City and he had told them about this mysterious Grunt from Saffron City.

"_You must know her. Dark hair, dark eyes, kinda short, looks a bit foreign...?"_

"_She's never worked with us."_

If she wasn't going to Viridian City to work, what was she going for? She was definitely going to the Gym, there was no doubt about that. And sometimes,_ just sometimes_, she was staying the night. Jet ran his hands over his face in exasperation at himself. _Come on, man. It doesn't take a genius to figure it out. _At first, he had even been so stupid to believe that Kantaris might have been Giovanni's kid. He'd even managed to convince himself that they bore some family resemblance. But seen as Kantaris had been interrogating him, Jet had taken the opportunity to get his own back.

"_So, are you Team Rocket royalty?"_

"_I'm just a Grunt!"_

"_But aren't you the Boss's daughter or something?"_

"_Not exactly."_

"_Oh. It's just that you seem kind of close to him."_

"_He's my guardian. Sort of."_

"_I see." _

But Jet didn't really see. He didn't get it. Well, he _did_ get it eventually. It was just that he didn't want it to be true. Sadly, it looked as though it _was_ true. And if Kantaris was involved with the Boss Man himself, Jet knew better than to make a move on her. He liked to keep his uniform on his back. And his head on his shoulders.


	5. Overkill

**DISCLAIMER:** I don't own Pokemon, any of its characters or any of its place names. If I did, it would be full of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll and wouldn't be suitable for kiddies. This story is rated for occasional bad language, mild innuendo and a few references to drugs and violence. It won't break your eyes, I promise.

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:** Another canon character cameo. By the way, I hate writing battle scenes with a passion, but if you have any tips on how I could improve them, please let me know...

* * *

_**Chapter 5**_

_**Overkill**_

Kantaris woke up with a sharp sense of urgency, thinking that she had overslept. She sat up, her heart racing, and for a few moments she frantically tried to remember where she should be. It took her a good while to realise that she wasn't even at home anymore. She looked up at the clock on the wall above the mirror. It was nearly ten o'clock at night. She'd been asleep for more than twelve hours. She had tumbled into bed right after checking into the nearest Pokémon Centre and having a quick shower. Her curly hair was still damp; it always took a long time to dry. _Wow. I must have been really tired._

Her body clock was well and truly messed up by now, but Kantaris didn't care. She was a night person by nature. There was something about the night that made her feel strangely alert and energetic. Maybe because it was the best time to go about Team Rocket business. But Team Rocket business wasn't on her mind right now. Team Rocket seemed a world away. _And Jet is probably a world away by now. _

Kantaris couldn't bring herself to think about him. With a weary sigh, she got up and turned on the kettle that was sitting on a tray on the bedside table. She wandered over to the window while waiting for the water to boil. Her damp hair made her feel chilly; she leaned over the heater under the window, trying to get warm. The view wasn't bad at all, since this was a big Pokémon Centre with several floors. From her window, she could see the hills of Cerulean Cape. After gazing for a few moments, she noticed a cluster of sparkly things. They reminded her of diamonds.

The Rocket made herself some hot chocolate and stood at the window, drinking slowly and cradling the cup in her hands to make the most of its heat. She never took her eyes away from the glittering things at the top of the hill. They seemed to be moving a little, as if they were floating candles. But the light that they gave out was definitely not fire. It was bright and silvery. With her sense of curiosity aroused, she finished her drink and fixed two spare Pokéballs to her belt alongside the four others that held her Pokémon. She grabbed her coat and the door key, leaving her backpack behind, and rushed off.

Kantaris was not sure where she was. She had arrived in daylight and in a rush when the streets were crammed with people. Everything was dark and empty now. But that wasn't a problem: she simply headed in the general direction of Cerulean Cape. As she jogged along, she felt herself running out of breath and remembered Jet's numerous teasing remarks. She'd laughed them all off, pretending that she didn't care, but she knew that any Rocket – especially a Grunt – who worked properly should never have had the chance to become sluggish. She stopped jogging. She didn't like to admit that she was a slacker. Not in Team Rocket.

As she reached the foot of the hill, Kantaris saw a sign indicating that there was a lake further up. Even better than that, she could see a faint glow. She took the uphill footpath; the climb wasn't hard, but she could feel her heart pounding as she neared the lake. She lay down in the grass on her front and crawled to the edge of the bank, being as silent as possible. Peering over the embankment, she saw what had been causing the bright lights that she'd seen from her window: it was a crowd of Staryu, floating on the surface of the water. Team Rocket occasionally resorted to selling star pieces when they were short of cash and had nothing better to do. Kantaris had seen those jewels many times and she had always known where they came from, but this was the first time that she'd seen a real, live Staryu.

Singling one out from near the bank of the lake, she grabbed a random Pokéball from her belt and pressed its button. Pineco appeared on the grass in front of her. Even though it was currently her least favourite Pokémon due to its annoying tendency to self-destruct, Kantaris decided that she would use it.

"Leech Life!"

Pineco carried out an attack that looked similar to Oddish's Absorb, and the floating Staryu was caught unaware. It leapt out of the lake and onto the grass, just a few feet away. Its central jewel shone and hundreds of little stars were projected from it like tiny golden bullets – a Swift attack. The stream of stars hit Pineco and sent it spinning on the spot.

"Tackle!"

Pineco delivered an impressive hit that made the Staryu tumble backwards into the lake. Kantaris watched anxiously as a few bubbles rose up here and there. After a few seconds, the star-shaped Pokémon floated to the surface again. Kantaris tossed an empty Pokéball towards the lake; it took up the Staryu and landed on the grass with a soft thud. After rocking from side to side a few times, it fell still, and the Rocket let out her breath slowly as she picked up her newest Pokémon. Glancing over her shoulder at the lake, she noticed that the rest of the Staryu had disappeared from the water's surface, probably to avoid being captured. She also noticed a viewpoint, just a little further up the hill. A lone figure was standing there, leaning on a fence and gazing straight out over the city. From here, it was impossible to tell anything about the person's age or gender.

Kantaris withdrew her Pineco and put both Pokéballs onto her belt and started walking again. As she reached the viewpoint and leaned against the wooden fence to catch her breath, the figure spoke to her in a female voice. "Nice catch."

Kantaris couldn't see the girl's face clearly; she was standing in the shadow of the trees and there was hardly any light. Judging from her voice, Kantaris guessed that she was very young. The Rocket sat down on the fence and lit a cigarette, offering another to the girl.

"No, thanks. I don't smoke."

"Oh. Good for you. So, what are you doing up here all alone?"

_I could rob this kid_, Kantaris thought to herself, although she recoiled a little at the thought. It occurred to her that she had never attacked a younger trainer, even though they would probably be easy picking. She couldn't help but take another glance at the girl, just to verify that she didn't look as though she had anything worth stealing. She wasn't wearing a trainer belt.

"The peace up here always distracts me. Does that make sense?" The girl changed the subject quickly. "Seems like you have potential. How long have you been a trainer?"

Kantaris was miffed that this young girl was telling her that she had 'potential', as if she were an expert on the subject. "You think I'm a beginner, huh? Why's that?"

"Well, you're either a beginner or that Pineco of yours is a recent catch."

"It's a recent catch." Kantaris lowered her cigarette, sheltering it from the wind. "I'm on the Gym Challenge. How about you? Ever wanted to do something like that?"

"I can't," the girl replied. "I'm not allowed."

"Not allowed?" Kantaris guessed that the girl's parents were probably overprotective. "You'll be allowed someday."

"It's not because of my age!" the girl replied stiffly. "I'm a Gym Leader. Gym Leaders can't take the Gym Challenge themselves unless they give up their Gym."

"Whoa!" Kantaris almost fell off the fence in surprise. "_You're _a Gym Leader?" _It just gets weirder and weirder._

"That's right," the girl said. "I'm Misty Waterflower."

"How oldare you?" Kantaris asked with new-found respect and a hint of jealousy.

"Sixteen. But age doesn't come into Pokémon training, you know."

Kantaris blushed, feeling stupider than ever. She hated to think back to what _she'd_ been doing when she was that age. But she turned away to hide a slight smirk. So what if Misty was a Gym Leader? She was still just a kid. She couldn't be _that _good.

"If you're the Gym Leader, I'm going to challenge you."

"Now?"

"If you like."

"This late? Normally, I wouldn't," the Gym Leader said warningly. "But I can't exactly turn down a challenge, can I? Come on. We should go to the Gym."

Misty vaulted over the fence and got back on the path. Kantaris silently followed her on a walk which seemed to take them almost out of town, until they reached a round building with a striped roof. A large plastic Dewgong rested above the door, illuminated by spotlights. Kantaris followed Misty inside and looked around in mild wonder: this looked more like a public swimming pool than a Pokémon Gym. There were even colourful decals on the back wall, a Starmie and a Poliwag. The pool had a bar running across its middle with a circular platform in the very centre.

Kantaris paused to examine a nearby poster but glanced at Misty out of the corner of her eye as she walked past. She looked even younger than she'd said she was. She was petite – scrawny, even – with ginger hair tied back in a scruffy ponytail. Considering it was winter, she wasn't wearing much. Her shorts were very short, and Kantaris felt cold just looking at her.

"Are these your sisters?" Kantaris asked, pointing to the three girls in the poster. Misty was at the other side of the pool by now, but the good acoustics and the lack of other sounds allowed her voice to carry well enough to be heard.

"Yep."

"You're the youngest?"

"Yeah."

Kantaris shifted her gaze to the framed poster beside the one of Misty's sisters. This one simply read: _PIA Certified Gym_. It bore a red and gold seal with an unfamiliar logo.

"You're the youngest and yet you're the Gym Leader? Your sisters must be jealous."

"Not really," Misty replied. "My sisters are professional swimmers."

_That explains the water connection_, Kantaris thought, surveying the large pool. She took it in her stride. She had a Pokémon that knew how to use Thunder. She could sizzle this place and any water-type Pokémon put in front of her within seconds. That badge would be hers before long.

"I guess it should be obvious," Misty said, "but there's no League official here at this time of night. Does that matter to you? We can still battle and I can mark your card if you win, but I have to warn challengers when there's no official here."

"That's fine with me." Kantaris tore her eyes away from the point on the wall at which she had been staring while dreaming about her imminent success. "My name's Kantaris. I'm from Saffron City. This will be my second Gym battle."

"Second? Okay." Misty inexplicably disappeared into what looked like a storage room at the other side of the pool. She emerged within seconds, fitting a trainer belt around her waist. "Do you have any brothers or sisters?"

This seemed like an unusual question to ask a challenger, but Kantaris answered. "No." She swallowed a sudden lump in her throat. "Do you get on with your sisters? Do they look out for you?"

"Sure. That's what family's for, right?" Misty shrugged and apparently failed to notice the slightly pained expression on her opponent's face. "You can challenge me now."

"I thought I already did."

"Oh? Well, how's about a three-on-three?"

"Whatever floats your boat."

Misty tossed her first Pokéball; its Pokémon emerged and dived into the water from the air. "I'll use my Goldeen first, if that's okay with you."

"And I'll use the platform."

Kantaris selected Oddish's Pokéball and pressed the button on the front, beaming the energy onto the platform in the middle of the pool. Oddish appeared and Misty smiled wryly. This 'Kantaris' person seemed like she had a lot of confidence, but she was in a bit of a predicament, even if she didn't realise it. This Gym was a place in which water Pokémon thrived, not only for the Gym Leader but also for the challenger. Most challengers managed to figure that out. How would a land-bound Pokémon battle against an opponent that could submerge itself, avoid any hits and counter-attack from beneath the water's surface?

Kantaris, too, was beginning to see the real set-up of the Gym. But it was too late now. She had already sent out her first Pokémon, and she hated to look as though she was second-guessing herself. It would still work. She would still win. She just couldn't use physical attacks, not when Oddish was stuck on that platform. It would be highly embarrassing if one of her Pokémon were to drown mid-battle.

"Oddish, Absorb!"

"Dive, Goldeen!"

Goldeen did so, and Kantaris watched carefully. The orb of green light remained; she could see it underneath the water. At the bottom of the pool, Goldeen slowed down and stayed still for a moment.

"Horn Attack!" Misty shouted.

Goldeen rose to the surface quickly and dived towards Oddish with a well-aimed Horn Attack. Luckily, Oddish did not need to be told to dodge this time, and it sprang to the left. Goldeen sailed straight over the platform and landed in the challenger's side of the pool, completely unscathed.

"Poison Powder!"

Oddish shook its leaves again, spraying forth the deadly purple dust. Goldeen didn't move, allowing the dust to settle on its scales and on the surface of the water around it. Misty laughed and Goldeen dived underwater briefly. When it emerged, the powder had washed off.

"Absorb again! Make it good this time!"

"Dodge it with a Peck attack, Goldeen!"

Oddish's attack missed, but Goldeen's did not. Oddish teetered at the edge of the platform before tumbling into the water, unconscious.

"Oh!" Misty cried. "Quick!"

Kantaris nonchalantly withdrew Oddish just as it began to sink. "I guess that must happen a lot in this Gym," she remarked.

"Trainers don't usually let their Pokémon faint into the water."

_I think it's time to sink to this girl's level. Literally._ Kantaris took hold of the fifth Pokéball on her belt, releasing the Pokémon directly into the water this time. "Fine, I'll use Staryu."

"Are you sure? You weakened it before catching it."

"It'll hold."

"I'm just giving you a chance here. First round is mine and you've only got two more."

Kantaris ignored Misty's charity. "Swift attack, Staryu!"

Staryu sprung out of the water and landed on the pool's edge at Kantaris' feet. From its central jewel it shot forth golden stars like a celestial machine gun. Goldeen dived underwater but the stars followed it. Kantaris grinned broadly, suddenly remembering that Swift was an attack that rarely missed.

"Peck attack!"

"Spin Tackle!"

Goldeen jumped out of the water to an incredible height and Staryu seemed to lean backwards for a second, watching it. Then, as Goldeen descended to attack, the star-shaped Pokémon leapt up and projected itself straight at its opponent, its five arms spinning like a boomerang. The two Pokémon collided heavily. Goldeen fainted and fell from the air in a vertical line, hitting the water with a resounding splash. Staryu continued its spinning flight through the air in a graceful arc and landed in Misty's side of the pool.

"Not bad," Misty said as she returned Goldeen to its Pokéball. She selected her next Pokémon and released it in front of Staryu. "Smokescreen, Horsea!"

_Smokescreen? For a Water Pokémon?_ Kantaris had never heard of this before. For a moment, Horsea did nothing. Then the tiny seahorse suddenly spat a jet of ink at Staryu, obscuring its central jewel.

"Water Gun!" Kantaris commanded. She knew that it wouldn't do much damage to another Pokémon of the same type; she just wanted to see it.

Staryu had a surprisingly powerful Water Gun. It was so strong that it sent Horsea reeling backwards and crashing into the pool wall. Kantaris smiled. She'd certainly picked the right Staryu.

"Now, Swift!" she called out before Horsea had the chance to move. She intended to keep Horsea pinned to the pool wall.

"Dodge it, Horsea!"

Kantaris shook her head, knowing that Horsea wouldn't be able to dodge the attack. But Misty's Pokémon was fast. It swam off towards the central platform, but the stars caught up with it and glanced off the back of its head brutally.

"Ice Beam!" Misty hissed, out for revenge now.

Kantaris cursed under her breath as a thin beam of ice shot from Horsea's mouth like an oversized icicle. It propelled Staryu into the pool wall in an appropriate act of vengeance. Kantaris sighed, waiting for the Ice Beam to stop, but it carried on. She was at the point of calling Staryu back or – Arceus forbid! – asking for mercy, when the attack finally finished. Her Staryu was now a gigantic, floating ice cube. The Rocket threw Staryu's Pokéball forward with so much angry force that it jarred her arm. She barely noticed the twinge of pain. It was time to bring out the big guns.

"This is your last Pokémon!" Misty announced. "You've got two more to beat and I'm saving the best until last, just to warn you!"

"Stella!"

A purple stream of mist slowly rose from the floor around Kantaris and clouded over the surface of the water. Horsea let out a cry and Stella's trainer smiled, relishing Misty's stunned expression. When the ghost Pokémon finally appeared, Misty squinted at it.

"Is that a Misdreavus?" she asked.

"No," Kantaris replied. "This is _the_ Misdreavus."

"What?"

"This is the Misdreavus that knows _Thunder_!"

Stella's eyes flashed and she threw out bolts of lightning in all directions. Kantaris ducked to avoid a spark that came flying her way. "Are we not bothering to aim today, Stella?" she yelled. Still, she watched with glee as the rest of the lightning was directed towards the pool. And that was enough. The entire surface of the water lit up with lightning. "Gee, electricity doesn't bode well in this Gym, does it?"

Misty growled under her breath as she called back her Horsea, which was floating on the surface of the water in a state of unconsciousness. No, electricity did not bode well in the Cerulean City Gym; in fact, it could be downright dangerous to use it. Misty's problem was that she rarely went so far as to inform trainers of this, lest it appear that she was trying to stifle the battle.

"If you wanna win using overkill, so be it," the Gym Leader said with a scowl. She threw in her last Pokéball. "Whoever gets this round gets the victory."

"Hey, a win is a win, right?"

A Golduck appeared on the central platform. "Psybeam!" Misty shouted in a high-pitched voice.

The almost-invisible Psybeam hit Stella and the ghost Pokémon went spiralling backwards through the air slowly, like an astronaut in space. She began to giggle, as if she were more amused than hurt. Kantaris ushered her forwards again.

"Psybeam!" she yelled, imitating Misty.

Stella mirrored Golduck's last move. The hit made Golduck stagger but did little damage. Kantaris didn't care. She was just playing around, and it was working: Misty was visibly irritated.

"Shadow Ball, Stella!"

A black and purple ball materialized in front of Stella and a strange glow filled the room. A few of the ceiling lights flickered. The Shadow Ball seemed to hit Golduck just as it was diving into the pool. Kantaris was not sure if it had truly hit or not.

"Surf!" Misty ordered. "Get out of the way!"

Kantaris realised, just in time, that Misty's last order had been directed at her. She stood back as a miniature tidal wave rose over the surface of the pool and swept over Stella. When it cleared, Stella was still hovering in the air, in the very same place, but she was dripping wet. Kantaris could never understand how a ghost could be wet, but she didn't think about it for long: Golduck was in the water. That was her cue.

"Thunder!" she ordered.

Stella flew high above the pool, water falling from her hair like raindrops. She did a three-hundred-and-sixty degree turn before performing a perfect Thunder attack. Bolts of lightning danced around the edge of the pool and straight down into the water, bouncing off the insulated platform in the middle. Misty and Kantaris both turned away from the blinding light.

"Stop!" Misty screamed. "You're gonna hurt your own Pokémon!"

"Huh?" Kantaris suddenly remembered that Stella had been soaked just before delivering that attack. "Okay, that's enough!"

Stella obeyed and shakily drifted down to the platform, looking as though she was about to black out. Before the Gym Leader could say anything, Kantaris quickly withdrew her Pokémon and both trainers' eyes fell, instead, upon Misty's fainted Golduck. Then the Gym Leader looked at Kantaris. For a moment, she seemed to be furious. Shaking her head, she withdrew her Pokémon before disappearing into the stockroom again. This time, she brought out a hand-held scanner identical to the one which the League official in Pewter City had been wearing on a cord around his neck. She reached into her pocket with her free hand as she walked along the side of the pool, removing a blue, teardrop-shaped badge from a piece of thin black plastic.

"Do you want this?"

"Well, yeah. Do you need to ask?"

"I just wondered," Misty replied, handing it over. Kantaris almost snatched it off her. She pinned the light blue badge onto her coat neatly, beside her Boulder Badge, and handed over her trainer card. She watched Misty closely, wishing that she knew how those scanners worked: she was paranoid that the Gym Leader might purposely avoid recording the badge.

"Good luck for the rest of your journey." Misty reached into her pocket again and handed Kantaris a small amount of money.

_That's probably her pocket money or her paper-round wages._ Kantaris felt sorry for her again. "You'll get out someday."

Misty said nothing.

A little way down the road, Kantaris considered going back and thanking the girl. She felt a little guilty for keeping a kid up so late and delivering such a harsh battle. _Overkill._ That was the word that Misty had used.

_I still say that a win is a win._


	6. Thunderstruck

**DISCLAIMER:** I don't own Pokemon, any of its characters or any of its place names. If I did, it would be full of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll and wouldn't be suitable for kiddies. This story is rated for occasional bad language, mild innuendo and a few references to drugs and violence. It won't break your eyes, I promise.

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:** Sorry for another looooong chapter! I hope you enjoy it, though. Yet another canon Gym Leader cameo, possibly one of my faves.

* * *

_**Chapter 6**_

_**Thunderstruck**_

"Hey, there. Mind if I sit with you?"

Kantaris was sitting in a café that she'd discovered while exploring Cerulean City. She looked up at the girl who had just spoken. The first thing she saw was curly blonde hair. Perfect, bouncy ringlets of it. They were nestled around a face which bore a smile that seemed to radiate light. As for the curls' owner, she was slender, dressed in a short skirt and a plain T-shirt despite the chilly weather; apparently this was normal in Cerulean City. She clutched a backpack in front of her with both hands.

Kantaris flickered a covetous eye over the pretty silver bracelet that the girl was wearing. She had developed very quick fingers during her time as a Rocket and knew that she could probably sit and chat with this girl and walk off with it. Maybe her wallet as well. The girl seemed like a cheery, trusting sort of person. An easy mark, in other words.

"Sure." Kantaris pulled out the chair that lay at a right angle from where she was sitting.

The girl carefully placed her bag over the side of the chair and sat down with her legs crossed. She took a mirror out of her pocket and checked her reflection for what seemed like a long time while Kantaris, chewing on a section of sandwich crust, watched her out of the corner of her eye. She almost jumped when the girl suddenly looked at her, still bearing the same disturbingly bright smile.

"You know what? I recognised you and I just _had_ to come and talk to you. I've been looking for you all morning, actually. I hoped you hadn't left town so soon and thankfully, you're still here! Isn't that lucky?"

"Lucky." Kantaris pushed her plate away. She had a hangover from her post-battle celebrations last night; she had blown almost all of her money in the nearest bar. "So, where did we battle?" she asked flatly.

The girl was clearly confused. "We haven't battled. I saw you coming out of the Gym."

"Uh-huh."

A long finger with a painted nail pointed at Kantaris' newest badge. "You beat Misty! You must be pretty good for a beginner."

"What makes you think that I'm a beginner?" _Why does everyone think I'm a goddamn newbie?_

"I just sort of presumed. You only have one other badge – " The girl shrugged in a carefree kind of way. "Do you want a coffee? You look kinda tired."

"Sure."

Kantaris didn't see anything wrong with getting a few free drinks out of this girl, even though she seemed more than a little strange. She just wished she was in a better position to rifle through her bag, but she wouldn't have been able to do that without drawing attention to herself: the girl had put her bag over the far side of her chair, out of Kantaris' immediate reach. Whilst she was still thinking about it, the girl returned with two large mugs of coffee. Kantaris drank hers a little too quickly, burning her tongue in the process. It was horrible coffee, too.

"Mind if I smoke?"

"Go right ahead." As if she couldn't restrain herself any longer, the girl suddenly launched into a tirade of questions. "Where are you from, by the way? How long have you been training? Do you mind if I ask your name?"

"Why don't you tell me who you are first?"

"My name's Katrina but everyone just calls me Kate. Less of a mouthful."

"And what do you do? Are you a trainer?" Kantaris knew that Kate wasn't wearing a trainer belt. She tended to notice that kind of thing instantly. But maybe there were Pokémon in her bag.

"Nope."

Kantaris was mildly relieved. At least she wouldn't have another wannabe rival on her hands. But it also meant that she wouldn't be stealing any Pokémon from this girl. That was too bad. It had been a long time since she'd stolen any Pokémon. She owed it to Team Rocket. Kate would be of no use to her in that department.

"Actually, I work for a Pokémon sanctuary."

"Is that so?" Kantaris suppressed a grin. _On second thoughts, this girl's like a fucking goldmine!_ "And where is this sanctuary?"

"It's just outside of town, not too far from where I live. My house is up on the Cape. You know, that big hill that overlooks the city."

"Sounds interesting. How long have you been working there?" _If she's new, maybe I can talk her into taking me on a little trip._

"It only just opened, actually. A few months ago. We're part of the Pokémon Institute. You know Lorelei from the Elite Four, right? She was the guest at our opening ceremony. Isn't that cool?"

Kantaris almost choked on her coffee. She put it down quickly and recoiled. The Pokémon Institute was the branch of the League concerned with the care and nurture of Pokémon. They endorsed and oversaw every Pokémon Centre in the land, amongst other things. No doubt this so-called 'sanctuary' would have close ties with those psychopath vigilantes in the Pokémon Defence League. Kantaris remembered all too well what had happened the last time she had tried to rob a breeding centre on her own and she decided that she wasn't going to do that again. Especially not a Pokémon Institute establishment. The security would be top-notch.

"What do you do?" Kate asked. She looked intrigued.

"Not a lot." Kantaris dropped her cigarette into the ashtray. "But I'm hoping to change that."

"You're on the Gym Challenge?"

"That's right."

"Are you planning on going all the way?"

"Of course." Kantaris almost laughed. "Doesn't everyone plan on going 'all the way'?" _I always thought 'going all the way' meant something else._

"I suppose they do. Where are you headed next?"

"Wherever there's a Gym."

Kantaris knew full well that she would be going to Vermilion City, but she didn't want to say it in no uncertain terms. She hoped that, if Kate wasn't a trainer, she wouldn't know.

"Ooh, that means you'll be going to Vermilion City, right? That's where I'm going!" The blonde girl seemed overjoyed.

"Oh."

"Yeah, I'm catching a boat to Olivine City in Johto. My boyfriend's working away there and I promised that I'd go visit him. How about you? Are you attached?"

"You sure do like asking questions, don't you?"

"Oh, I'm sorry. Just tell me off if I'm being too nosy." Kate changed the subject, much to Kantaris' relief. "If you're heading to Vermilion, you could come along with me. It's quite a way away. Travelling on your own can get pretty boring, don't you think?"

"Not when you're a trainer," Kantaris replied. That was a lie. She did find it boring.

"Well, you're probably right. But still, if you wanted a travelling partner...?"

"Have you travelled this route before?"

"Oh, sure! I've been to Vermilion City tons of times!"

Kantaris wasn't exactly brimming with joy at the prospect of travelling alongside such a sickeningly cheerful character, but she decided that maybe this girl could come in useful. And she still liked the look of that bracelet. Besides, maybe she was carrying quite a bit of cash around if she was heading over to Johto. She seemed too ditzy to be money-safe.

"I suppose a bit of company wouldn't go amiss," Kantaris said, faking a warm smile. "And I don't know this area or Vermilion City. You could be my guide!

"Oh, that's so cool! Tell you what, I'm gonna go home and get my stuff, okay? Will you meet me at the main Pokémon Centre in a couple of hours' time?"

"Sure."

That afternoon, as promised, Kantaris was hanging around in the town square, just outside the Pokémon Centre. She was beginning to think that Kate had forgotten. She seemed like the kind of person who probably would. If that were the case, it wouldn't really matter. She didn't particularly want to spend several days with this girl and was beginning to think that it wouldn't be worth it, not for a bracelet, not even for any cash that she might be able to swipe from her. But just as she was about to set off on her own, Kantaris heard a voice.

"Hey! Sorry I'm late!"

She turned around to see Kate running towards her, a large sports bag on her shoulder. Kantaris wondered how she was able to run with it. Her blonde curls were pulled back into a high ponytail which rose up behind a colourful visor. _Does anyone around here know that it's practically winter?_

"Typical me," Kate said, putting her hand on Kantaris' shoulder. "All set for the next lap of the Gym Challenge?"

"I guess so."

"Oh, by the way, I didn't catch your name earlier." Kate looked at her questioningly.

"Kantaris."

"Kantaris? Is that your first name?"

"It's what everyone calls me."

The journey down to Vermilion City was far too long and, like everyone else, Kate walked too fast. Still, she managed to keep herself amused while Kantaris was battling other trainers. Sometimes she would watch. Sometimes she would even act as cheerleader. On their final day of travelling, they reached Diglett's Cave. It was just the right day to be ducking underground: it was freezing and pouring down with rain, and Kantaris was developing a cold. The two girls ran into the dusty tunnel and all was dark until Kate pulled a torch from her bag. It seemed to be quite a hi-tech torch, too. It was bright enough to leave colours dancing in front of Kantaris' eyes. _Of all the things for a dumb blonde to be carrying. _As they walked through the tunnel, Kantaris was sure that she could hear something. It was a low humming, coming from behind the walls. She held off coughing and sniffling for long enough to listen.

"Do you hear that?" Kate whispered, stopping in her tracks. "It's the Diglett! They built this tunnel!"

"Well, that's the most fascinating thing I've heard for a while," Kantaris said semi-sarcastically. Pathetically, it was the truth.

The two girls carried on walking and the humming grew alternately louder and softer. Eventually, it faded away altogether as they neared the other side of the tunnel.

Kate stopped walking again and exclaimed, "How cute!"

Kantaris looked ahead. There was nothing there that might have caught Kate's attention. Then she looked down at the ground. Less than a metre in front of her was a tiny Diglett. Kantaris stood still for a few moments, staring at it blankly.

"Diglett!" it suddenly exclaimed.

Kantaris grabbed Staryu's Pokéball. "Water Gun, go!"

The first few sprays of Staryu's attack hit the wild Diglett before it ducked underground. But Kantaris wasn't to going be outdone. "Swift!"

A ray of golden stars followed the Diglett down its burrow. There was a small crash directly under Kantaris' feet and the ground seemed to shake. Then everything was still.

"Where'd it go?"

"Diglett!" The Diglett emerged right at her feet and blew a cloud of dust at Staryu. Staryu responded with an angry Tackle attack.

"Okay, that's enough!" With one hand, Kantaris retrieved Staryu; with the other, she threw an empty Pokéball.

The Pokéball bounced off Diglett's head and hovered in the air above it until the small Pokémon had vanished into energy. The Pokéball fell and wobbled around on the ground; it would have fallen into the burrow hole if Kantaris hadn't quickly picked it up.

When they arrived in Vermilion City, they found a hotel and booked one night: Kate's ship was due to leave the next day, and Kantaris certainly wasn't planning to hang around. She wanted to keep moving and get on with her Gym Challenge. And if she was going to steal something off Kate – no, she hadn't done it yet – it would be best if she were to leave town soon afterwards. Kate wouldn't have time to chase her if she had a ship to catch.

Kantaris didn't even go to the hotel room. "I'm going to the Pokémon Centre," she said, "then to the Gym."

"Now? Already? Why not wait until tomorrow?"

"Why should I wait until tomorrow? I'm ready and my Pokémon are fine. We did a lot of training over the past few days, in case you didn't notice. No point in waiting."

"Well, good luck, then!"

Kantaris nodded and smiled, trying to look grateful. As she walked away, her smile turned into a less pleasant one. She hadn't paid a penny for anything since the start of the journey. Kate was far too generous for her own good. Heck, the way she spent, she must have been rich. And if they were going to be sleeping in the same room, that would give Kantaris all the time and opportunity that she needed to take whatever Kate had that was worth taking. But, for now, she had to concentrate on getting her next badge. Hoping that her new Diglett would come in useful, she put her Pineco into a storage box and was almost glad to be rid of it.

The Vermilion City Gym looked more like a large warehouse. Or a prison, even. It was a huge building with plain grey walls and bars on the windows. When Kantaris went inside, she was even more surprised. There were small groups of trainers everywhere. If this was really the Gym, the Gym Leader obviously wasn't around. Kantaris wasn't willing to wait like everyone else. She decided that she would come back later and was about to leave when someone called out:

"New girl, where you going?" Kantaris turned around and found herself facing a large, heavily-tattooed guy. _Is he talking to me? _"If you wanna challenge Surge, you gotta beat a couple of us first!"

"Why?" she demanded.

"'Cos we're his students here, that's why! And if you can't beat us, you won't stand a chance against our teacher!"

"I didn't come here to be battle fodder for a bunch of random trainers_._" Kantaris scanned the room, looking for a League official, but there was none in sight.

"I'll make it easy on you," the man said patronisingly. "Beat just one of my Pokémon. You can use as many as you like."

Kantaris wasn't sure if this guy was for real or whether he was lying just to get a battle to kill some time. But, either way, her pride had just been insulted: this 'student' of Surge's obviously thought that she couldn't beat him without a massive advantage. She would have to prove him wrong. She instantly released Diglett from its Pokéball, feeling very proud of herself: the emblem on the back wall and the lightning rods placed here and there told her that this was an electric-type Gym. A ground-type Pokémon like Diglett would be completely unaffected by electricity.

The opponent laughed. "Presumptuous, aren't ya?"

He tossed his Pokéball and a large bird appeared. It seemed to be made entirely of metal, from its feet to its feathers. When it gnashed its beak and moved its wings, it made a terrible sound like that of hundreds of swords clashing against each other. Kantaris paled as she realised that she was facing two of her phobias in one. _Big Pokémon. Steel Pokémon. Not good._

"You ain't looking so confident," the trainer remarked, folding his arms. "Let me help you out. This is a Skarmory. It's a steel-flying hybrid."

A steel-flying hybrid? That was unlucky. Diglett's ground-based attacks wouldn't work: a flying Pokémon could simply take to the air and avoid them. And all of Kantaris' Pokémon were so hopelessly small compared to this thing.

"If I change Pokémon," she said, "does that count as using two?"

"Of course it does. That's the rules of battling wherever you go. Any Pokémon that makes an appearance is counted in the battle. But I said you could use as many Pokémon as you want, didn't I?"

Kantaris scowled angrily at being forced to take up that advantage, but she withdrew Diglett and sent out Cyndaquil in its place. As soon as she had done so, her opponent took the opportunity to make a move.

"Steel Wing attack!" Skarmory spread its keen-looking wings and dived straight towards Cyndaquil.

"Get out of the way!" Cyndaquil ducked and rolled to the right, avoiding Skarmory's wings. "Now hit it with Ember!"

Cyndaquil's back glowed red as it ensued forth a decent Ember attack. Skarmory seemed to glow red-hot with the heat. After a few seconds, it began to cower a little. But Cyndaquil wasn't strong enough to keep up the attack for very long. It seemed to run out of fire and gave up, gasping for breath. Kantaris gritted her teeth. Skarmory was still glowing, still shying away from the lingering heat. Its trainer, however, was unmoved.

"It'll take more than that to beat my Skarmory," he said. "Peck attack!"

"Ember again!" Kantaris yelled, almost in unison. Cyndaquil shot one, two, three, four fireballs at Skarmory. Each one hit head-on and Skarmory finally fell with a clang. Kantaris raised her eyebrows and smiled. "Finish it with a Tackle!"

Cyndaquil sprang at its opponent. The attack itself was fine, but it had the same effect as running into a metal wall. Cyndaquil fell to the floor, dazed, having done more damage to itself than to its opponent. _That was a stupid idea_, Kantaris admitted silently.

"Whirlwind, Skarmory!" A gust of wind sent Cyndaquil spiralling backwards. Realising what this meant, Kantaris tried to put out a foot to stop her Pokémon, but she missed. "You gotta send out another Pokémon," her opponent added.

"I know that." Kantaris clicked her tongue and withdrew Cyndaquil who was sprawled on the floor a few metres away.

"Gee, this is your third Pokémon!" The other trainer laughed heartily. "Good thing I gave you that advantage, huh?"

Kantaris was infuriated. "Go, Stella!"

The Misdreavus must have sensed her trainer's predicament because she emerged faster than ever before, not wasting any time on special effects or a classy entrance. She spat at her opponent in disdain; Skarmory scratched the ground, impatient to attack.

"Gust!" ordered Skarmory's trainer.

Stella shut her eyes and stood her ground – figuratively speaking – as the wind ruffled her ghostly hair. Kantaris decided to go for the pièce de résistance. "Thunder attack!"

"Hey, you're learning!" the trainer exclaimed as the electric attack floored his Pokémon.

"Now, Shadow Ball!"

"Fly, Skarmory!"

The Shadow Ball attack narrowly missed Skarmory's feet as it flew vertically three or four metres into the air. Kantaris cursed. "Follow it into the air and attack again!"

Stella obediently zoomed up to meet its opponent. The steel bird squawked, turned its back and began to fly around the room, dodging Stella's Shadow Ball attacks. The two trainers watched intently from the ground as the two Pokémon rose further and further into the air. It was a good thing the ceiling was so high.

"Nightshade, Stella!" Kantaris yelled, furious now. "Fill the whole damn room with Nightshade!"

Stella's Nightshade attack did certainly seem to engulf the entire room. Everything turned purple and black and seemed to come to a standstill. Every other trainer in the room stopped talking, stopped battling, just to watch Skarmory fall several metres through the air and land on the floor with an almighty bang that rang in everyone's ears for at least thirty seconds afterwards.

"You managed in the end," the trainer said with a snicker as he handed over a mediocre amount of cash.

Kantaris was dissatisfied, not at the meagreness of the reward but at the knowledge that she had used two Pokémon – three, according to official rules – to beat just one of her opponent's. She didn't care if he'd given her that advantage. She shouldn't have needed it. There was work to be done. She wondered whether she should even be challenging this Gym Leader, but she was on autopilot. She headed to the Pokémon Centre to heal up and grab a cup of strong espresso coffee before heading straight back to the Gym. This time, she noticed a well-built, khaki-clad guy who stood with his back turned at the opposite side of the room and she strode over to him, avoiding eye contact with anyone else.

"Are you Surge?" she demanded.

"I'm _Lieutenant_ Surge," he answered as he turned to face her.

Kantaris now saw that the khaki outfit he wore was a faded army uniform, the torso of which was emblazoned with badges and medals. Kantaris wondered if he had other Pokémon badges amongst them but she decided not to look too hard in case she didn't like what she found. His blonde hair, too, was faded, and his face looked weathered.

"Lieutenant Matthew Surge," he said again, his accent distinctly American, "army veteran and Electric Pokémon specialist." The corner of his mouth turned up in a smirk. "And who might you be, _baby_?"

Kantaris was openly shocked. She laughed, not sure how seriously to take this guy, and looked around at the other trainers. They returned her gaze, stony and without a single smile. Judging from their expressions, Surge was being entirely serious. Kantaris stopped laughing at once.

"Did...did you just call me '_baby_'?" she asked uneasily.

"I sure did. And not in the romantic sense either."

"You think I'm a baby?"

"Lieutenant Surge, please!" a voice called from the corner of the room. "We've talked about this!"

Kantaris felt almost relieved as a League official jogged his way over. Pausing to catch his breath, he put out a hand. Still glaring at Surge, Kantaris gave him her trainer card and he scanned it.

"Third Gym battle," he said, still panting slightly.

"See?" Surge grinned. "A baby."

"You're out of order, Sir," Kantaris said, backing away to allow room for the battle.

"Prove me wrong!" Surge released a powerful-looking Magneton.

Kantaris hoped that Surge's attitude was nothing more than an act, but it appeared that his Pokémon were as tough as their trainer. Kantaris had not been expecting a Magneton as her first opponent and she searched wildly for anything that might vaguely resemble a battle plan.

"Let's make it a three-on-three," Surge said, before the League official could announce the same thing. "At least that way there'll be a limit to your misery."

His onlooking students laughed amongst themselves. A few of them jeered at Kantaris whose hand was wandering over her trainer belt indecisively. She had been about to send out Pineco as useless battle fodder, but if she was going to be limited to how many Pokémon she could use, that was probably a bad idea. Humiliated by the catcalls of the spectators, she seized a Pokéball.

"Diglett!"

"Magneton! Tackle attack!"

"Go underground!"

Diglett burrowed underground just in time to avoid Magneton as it swept through the air in an intended head-on Tackle. The smaller Pokémon emerged again a split-second later but was forced to duck to avoid a second attack. This continued for some time. Kantaris was reminded of an arcade game in which players had to smack miniature Diglett-shaped things with mallets. Magneton was missing each time and Diglett was indeed beginning to treat it like a game.

"Are you gonna keep this up forever, baby?" Surge asked.

At least Diglett wasn't taking any damage. And maybe Magneton would get worn out. But, no, she had to attack. But how? With what? Magneton was in the air and Diglett was a Ground Pokémon. It looked like there would be an uncomfortable stalemate here. Unless...

"Try a Rock Slide!"

Kantaris was put off by Surge's permanent smirk that remained on his face even when a lump of

rocks materialised in the air above his Pokémon. She soon realised why he was looking so complacent. As the rocks fell, they almost brushed off Magneton's metal body, leaving not so much as a dent or a scratch.

"She really doesn't know anything about steel Pokémon!" someone yelled out from the small crowd. Kantaris didn't even need to look to know that it was the guy whom she'd barely beaten not long ago.

"That thing looks so weak," Surge said with a laugh. "A single Sonicboom should take it out, no problem. Go for it, Magneton!"

"Sand-Attack!" Kantaris called out desperately. She knew it wasn't an offensive move and that it wouldn't cause any damage, but it was all that came to mind.

Her Pokémon blew a cloud of blinding sand from its mouth, but Magneton's Sonicboom attack ripped through the dust and struck Diglett. Surge had been wrong, however: Diglett was not knocked out. Kantaris would have loved to take the time to remind him of what he'd just said, but she was too tense. She would only gloat when this battle was over. _If I even win._

"Try another Sand-Attack!" _If I can just blind that Magneton a little, it might give me more time to –_

"Finish it with a Tackle!"

Kantaris flinched as Magneton avoided Diglett's second blast of sand and tackled it hard from the side. Diglett retreated into its burrow and stayed there. If it hadn't fainted, it was unwilling to carry on. Kantaris didn't even try to hide her anxiety as she withdrew her Pokémon. She had been planning to rely on it a lot in this Gym. _What now?_

"Diglett is unable to battle! This round goes to Lieutenant Surge!"

"Go, Cyndaquil!" Kantaris yelled as she threw her next Pokéball. "Ember, now!"

Cyndaquil may have been small, but its advantage was that it had gained a lot of speed over the past few days. The training (and possibly the threats) had paid off. Magneton, on the other hand, was too heavy and cumbersome to move quickly and dodge attacks. As it was hit by a ball of fire, its steel body glowed red.

"Is that all you got, baby?" Surge laughed. "Thunder Wave!"

Magneton loomed in the air above Cyndaquil who, in a moment of panic, turned heel and fled towards its trainer whilst being chased with small zaps of electricity that narrowly missed its rump. Kantaris backed away. She didn't fancy the idea of getting an electric shock.

"Turn around and fight, you dumb Pokémon!" she ordered.

Just as she spoke, Cyndaquil was finally struck by one of Magneton's bolts and collapsed at her feet. Kantaris was suddenly aware of the spectators' glares and she shifted her weight uneasily. As her Cyndaquil struggled to get back on its feet, she felt like she should say something – or do something. But what? The League official hesitantly began to raise his flag.

"Can you carry on?" she asked, trying to sound patient and sympathetic but not succeeding very well.

With its trainer's lack of compassion, one wouldn't have been too surprised, perhaps, if Cyndaquil had walked off or returned to its Pokéball of its own accord. But it was too loyal and eager to please. With a weak nod, it turned around shakily to face its stronger opponent.

Surge looked astounded. "And I thought _I_ was a slave-driver! I gotta admit, I feel sorry for your Pokémon, baby."

"Ember attack!"

Despite its weakened state, Cyndaquil obeyed its trainer. The fire on its back, which had all but gone out when it had taken a hit, came back into full flare. The small Pokémon grounded itself and fired several balls of fire at Magneton, its whole body recoiling like a shotgun each time. Magneton could not move quickly enough to dodge the attacks, and wherever it moved, Cyndaquil's aim followed. The last ember hit it in the centre of its body and it tumbled to the ground with a dull, metallic thud.

"This round goes to the challenger!" the League official yelled, raising his other flag.

"Now who feels sorry for who?" Kantaris asked.

"You're still a baby to me," Surge said as he sent Magneton back to its Pokéball. "And as for that baby Pokémon of yours – "

Cyndaquil growled and the fire spots on its back flared up in protest. Something began to happen. It was something that Kantaris had seen only once before, back in Mount Moon. Her Cyndaquil stood perfectly still. For a moment, she thought that it was well and truly paralysed. Then it began to glow. It glowed brighter and brighter. When the glow faded, a sleeker, larger Pokémon was standing in Cyndaquil's place. It raked the ground with its paw and snorted quietly as if in scorn.

"Well, would you look at that?" Surge exclaimed. "You've got yourself a Quilava!"

Kantaris allowed herself a smile. "Maybe you should watch what you say," she remarked, glaring at Surge. "I think you just insulted it into evolving."

"If bad treatment is what makes Pokémon evolve, baby, I'm sure you would have had a Quilava a long time ago."

Wasting no more time, Surge released his next Pokémon. Kantaris' feeling of hope died away as she laid eyes on a fired-up, muscular Electabuzz.

"Quilava! Tackle attack!"

_Nothing quite like commanding a newly-evolved Pokémon_, she thought to herself – although she wouldn't have known the name of Cyndaquil's new form, had Surge not told her. As a Cyndaquil, her Pokémon's streamlined shape had made it good at delivering swift attacks. As a Quilava, it had the same nimbleness and speed but its physical attacks would be stronger due to its increased strength. It raced towards its opponent like a streak of red fire, its back still blazing.

"Electabuzz, Thunderpunch!" Surge commanded.

The Thunderpunch sent Quilava flying with a crack that made Kantaris gasp in concern – a rare thing for her. "Try an Ember!" Quilava let out a well-aimed, concentrated blast that sent its opponent reeling. Kantaris began to doubt the strength of Surge's Electabuzz. "Again, Quilava!"

But Quilava was too slow this time, probably due to the paralysis. Surge got there first. "Thunder attack!"

Kantaris covered her eyes as lightning filled the battlefield. She felt a streak of heat running past her legs, almost close enough to burn her. _Is it running away again? Useless Pokémon!_ Opening her eyes, she saw Quilava running not _away _from the Thunder attack but straight into the middle of it. It bravely leapt into the air towards its opponent with its claws outstretched. The Thunder attack was cut short.

"That's a Slash attack!" Kantaris whispered.

"Hang in there, Electabuzz!" Surge was yelling.

"Don't waste time! Finish it off with another Ember!"

Quilava fired two fireballs in quick succession. That was all it needed. Electabuzz went down without a sound and the League official announced that it was unable to continue. It was while Surge was choosing his next Pokémon that Kantaris became aware of her pounding heart and her sweaty palms. She was getting into the battle more than she had realised. She imagined that being a trainer could prove to be reasonably stressful. _Imagine how that hotshot Lance must feel. No, I bet he never gets nervous. If that's true, I really do hate him._

"Go, Raichu!" Surge roared, tossing in his Pokéball.

Kantaris couldn't resist a belittling remark. "Oh, it's so cute!" she exclaimed as it appeared in front of her, snarling fiercely at Quilava.

"Cute? Ha! Wait until you get a load of this, baby: Thunderbolt attack, Raichu!"

"Dodge it!"

Continuing well despite its mild paralysis, Quilava took off around the battlefield, dodging every attack that was thrown its way. It speeded up. Raichu was lost. Then it started to slow.

"Quick Attack, Quilava!"

The not-so-Quick-Attack missed at the same time as Raichu launched something that looked like an Iron Tail. Its solid tail whipped around, too quick to be avoided, and struck Quilava in the face. The fire Pokémon was spent. It passed out.

"So it ain't invincible after all," Surge remarked with a small chuckle.

"Quilava..." Kantaris took its Pokéball and withdrew it, but she felt as though she should say something. Just as she was about to silently thank her Pokémon for working so hard, the Gym Leader interrupted her train of thought.

"Looks like you lost, baby."

"What? I lost? But you said this was a three-on-three! I'm allowed to use one more Pokémon!"

"You just did. Cyndaquil and Quilava are two different Pokémon. You've used your three already."

Kantaris glanced at the League official desperately, but he wasn't looking at her. He was staring at the Gym Leader, his expression open-mouthed and blank.

"Can't we make it a four-on-four?" she asked.

"I can't go bending the rules just 'cos you lost, baby! We'd be here all day and all night!"

Kantaris remained dumbstruck, unable to say anything in reply. She felt her cheeks becoming hot and red. Surge's students were still standing around; she could feel their eyes burning into her back. _Speaking of burning backs...this is all Cyndaquil's fault. Why did it have to go and evolve? It cost me that battle. I'm gonna throw it out like I should have done a long time ago. Maybe give it to Team Rocket. It should fetch a good price._

"Alright, Lieutenant," the League official said at last. "Joke's over."

"Huh?" Kantaris blinked in confusion.

"I'm messing with you, baby," Surge said quietly. "One more Pokémon. Choose."

"Oh." Kantaris blushed even more when she heard the crowd of spectators laughing. Her reaction must have looked dire. But she would have her revenge now. She tapped Stella's Pokéball lightly with two fingers.

"What's your next Pokémon, baby?"

"Stella." As she spoke her name, Stella appeared with something that sounded like a purr, fluttering her eyelashes. "Shadow Ball, go!"

It was almost as if Raichu had been expecting that. It leapt out of the way instantly and the attack passed by harmlessly before dissipating into the air.

"Nightshade, Stella!"

The oncoming blast was too large to escape. Raichu turned and fled but was hit and crashed to the ground. Kantaris watched it silently. So did Surge. It rose to its feet slowly and turned to face Stella with a low growl.

"Ha!" Surge grinned. "Not beaten yet!"

"But not long to go."

"Thunder!" they both yelled at the same time.

The weakened Raichu seemed too surprised at Kantaris' command to do anything. It delayed in its attack as if it were waiting to see if this ghost Pokémon really _could _use Thunder. Surely it was impossible. But Stella could, and Stella did. With a screech, she unleashed a mighty Thunder attack that would have made an electric Pokémon proud. The look on Surge's face was again mirrored on his Pokémon's as the lightning hurtled towards Raichu. Kantaris saw it happening as if in slow motion. A smile slowly formed on her face.

"Raichu, uh..." Surge faltered for the first time. "Thunderbolt!"

"Give it another Nightshade!"

Having learned that running away was useless, Raichu stood its ground and reared up to face the oncoming attack. Its tail and cheeks bristled with electricity as it prepared to use its Thunderbolt as a counter-attack. Had its timing been good, it may have succeeded. But Stella's attack was too fast. It engulfed Raichu and began to weaken it. Still the mouse-like Pokémon stood its ground. Kantaris had to admit that it was strong. The Nightshade passed over it with no visible effect. _Why hasn't it attacked yet?_ Kantaris wondered. Raichu's cheeks were still sparking as if it were waiting to attack. _Waiting for what?_

"Finish it off with another Thunder, Stella!"

As Stella launched her attack, Raichu appeared to grin – or snarl. Kantaris soon realised why. Stella's Thunder attack was concentrated towards her opponent's charged-up cheeks, which seemed to absorb the electricity like a sponge to water.

"Let's show these babies a _real_ Thunder attack!"

"Drop a Shadow Ball from above!"

The concentration and energy that it took for Raichu to produce its Thunder attack made it unable to move for a split-second. That was all Stella needed. She zoomed into the air above the electric Pokémon, produced a Shadow Ball and dropped it onto Raichu like a basketball player performing a slam-dunk. Raichu's Thunder attack became nothing but a brief flash. Surge's Pokémon rolled over weakly and he stared at it in silence as the League official announced his challenger's victory. At last, the Gym Leader shrugged and held up his hands in surrender.

"That's it," he said. "You won. I'd say you could do with this Thunderbadge."

He took a small box out of his pocket and tossed it to Kantaris, but she failed to catch it and had to pick it up from the floor at her feet. There was some money strapped onto the box with an elastic band.

"I was gonna give you a TM," Surge added, "but I've given away all my Thunderbolts. And I see that you've already had Thunder."

"Your card..." the League official said. As he gave it back, he glanced at Kantaris. "I hope he didn't get to you too much."

"Hey, it's just banter! Don't feel bad!" Surge declared. "You're doing good, baby. Oops, I guess I can't call you that no more."


	7. Mysterious Deliveries

**DISCLAIMER:** I don't own Pokemon, any of its characters or any of its place names. If I did, it would be full of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll and wouldn't be suitable for kiddies. This story is rated for occasional bad language, mild innuendo and a few references to drugs and violence. It won't break your eyes, I promise.

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:** All is not as it seems…

* * *

_**Chapter 7**_

_**Mysterious Deliveries**_

The day after her success at the Vermilion City Gym, Kantaris woke up naturally with an all-over ache that was not unpleasant. Aside from her niggling cough, she felt relaxed, almost as if she was in a trance. When she remembered that she was in a hotel, not a Pokémon Centre, she realised that she couldn't remember booking it. A few seconds later, she remembered that her travelling partner had paid for it. That was very nice of her, especially as Kantaris was about to rob her blind. That would be today's first order of business.

Kantaris stretched and rolled over before rubbing her eyes and opening them. When she did so, she froze. Kate's bed was empty and it had been perfectly made. Her bag was nowhere in sight either. _She's gone already? But her ship doesn't leave until later! What time is it? It can't be that late. And why didn't she wake me up if she was leaving?_ Kantaris looked at her wrist to find that she wasn't wearing her watch. She got up to look for it. During her search of the room, it became obvious that Kate really had left. All of her stuff was gone, just as if she'd never even been there.

_Where the hell is my watch?_ It was no big deal. Kantaris was prone to losing things. And besides, there was a clock on the desk. According to its digital display, it was only half past nine in the morning. She had slept for longer than she'd intended, but Kate still wasn't supposed to have gone yet. Even if the hotel had a policy of making people check out at noon, that still left a couple of hours. _I can't believe she just left. _Kantaris told herself that it didn't matter too much. Kate hadn't even been carrying any Pokémon with her. Kantaris had only wanted that bracelet of hers. In fact, it was more of an urge to steal something than a desire for anything in particular. _I never thought of myself as a kleptomaniac before._

Considering this an insignificant slip-up, Kantaris went back into the bathroom to wash her face. As she was standing over the sink, she noticed something that she hadn't seen while she'd been searching for her watch: there was a Polaroid photograph stuck in the top left hand corner of the bathroom mirror. Kantaris took it down and looked at it. It was a bad quality, self-taken photograph of Kate. She was flashing a peace sign with her free hand, a charming smile on her face. But she was dressed differently. That hat and the red and white trim on her collar looked familiar.

"Holy Arceus...she's a Rocket!"

A hand-written message in the white space underneath the photograph read 'Courtesy of the Black Tulip'. Kantaris tossed the photograph aside. As she went about getting dressed, she thought of what a coincidence it was that she had already run into two fellow –

_Hey. Wait a minute. Where's my trainer belt?_

Although she was only half-dressed, she started rooting through her bag. It didn't take her long to realise that it was a lot emptier than it had been before. So were her coat pockets, on inspection. She hadn't been carrying megabucks, but all of her money was gone. Her phone and gun were missing, too, which Kantaris found somewhat ironic as they were both Team Rocket property. No doubt Kate had stolen her watch. Worst of all, her trainer belt was nowhere in sight, nor were any of her Pokéballs.

"That thieving bitch!"

Kantaris stripped off the clothes that she'd been putting on and replaced them with one of her Team Rocket uniforms. She bundled the rest of her belongings into her bag as quickly as she could and ran out of the hotel, wondering in the back of her mind if Kate had bothered to pay the bill before she left. Probably not. But Kantaris had more important things to worry about. She was going to find Kate, even if she had to get on that ship to Olivine City to do so. At least she knew that Kate had been telling the truth about that: she'd seen the ticket. Unless it was fake, of course. But what else could she do but try?

The harbour wasn't far. Kantaris sprinted there as fast as she could, forcing her way through the crowds with no regard for anyone else. She couldn't believe her luck when she caught sight of a white and red cap amidst the throngs of people heading for the ship terminal. That was Kate. Definitely. The blonde ringlets were visible from under her hat and gave her away. _Time for a sneak attack._ Kantaris upped her pace and ran straight past Kate in the blink of an eye, grabbing the large bag off her shoulder as she did so.

She changed her direction, heading away from the port. As soon as she found an alleyway, she dove out of sight and opened every compartment on Kate's bag. She found her phone, watch, gun and wallet, not to mention her medal from Pokémon Stadium - _Why the hell did she steal that? It's not worth anything! _- and, thankfully, her trainer belt with all of her Pokémon on it. She took her belt and kissed it in relief. In addition to retrieving her own belongings, she took Kate's wallet and passport, inside which was the ship ticket. She laughed to herself. Kate wouldn't be going anywhere without that.

_Kate? Is that even her real name?_ Kantaris opened the passport and smirked. It wasn't her name at all. Not even her middle name. No surprise there. The name on her passport was Dominique. Kantaris wasn't about to criticise: after all, she never gave out her own real name. But she'd never even considered giving herself such a pretentious title as The Black Tulip. _Who the hell does she think she is? Wait until I tell Giovanni._

There was nothing else of worth to be found in Kate's – Dominique's – bag. Her clothes were prettier than anything Kantaris owned, but they wouldn't have fit her. Dominique was probably one or two sizes smaller. That only added to Kantaris's anger. She left the bag in the alleyway and strolled off, whistling to herself and pretending to be occupied whilst secretly keeping an eye out: she didn't want Dominique to pull the same trick as she'd just done. _Where next? _she wondered. _Back to Saffron? Or Celadon City?_

She kept walking until a sign told her that she was leaving Vermilion City. She breathed a heavy sigh of relief as she saw open countryside in the distance. It didn't really matter where she went; she was free to go wherever she pleased. She felt ready to take on any trainer, any Gym – excluding that of the Boss, of course –

"Hey! Kantaris!" _Hello? I recognise that voice._ Kantaris smiled to herself in amusement and kept walking. She heard footsteps following her. "Hey, stop!"

She'd been expecting this and she was prepared. She stopped walking, turned around and took Dominique's passport and ship ticket out of her pocket. In the other hand she held her lighter which she now flicked open, holding the flame within igniting distance of the documents.

"Looks like your getaway is about to go up in flames, Dominique."

"Don't do that!" Dominique froze in panic and tugged at the edges of her hat.

"Why shouldn't I? You stole from a fellow Rocket!"

"I didn't know that you were a Rocket, you idiot!"

"You rooted through my bag! My uniforms were in there!"

"I didn't look at your clothes, stupid! I just grabbed things! And I _need_ that ship ticket! The Boss has put me on an expedition to Johto!"

"You're lying," Kantaris said suspiciously. "We don't operate in Johto."

"Not _yet_. That's why Giovanni wants me to set up a base there."

"You refer to the Boss by his name? Who are you?"

"Giovanni calls me Agent 009. I'm the Black Tulip."

"I got that bit!" Kantaris snapped.

"Domino. That's my regular name."

"What's your rank?"

"I was promoted to Executive last month but I couldn't stand all that administration shit, so I asked the Boss if I could carry on working as an Elite. Why, what are you?"

"My rank is none of your business. All you need to know is that I answer to Giovanni himself." That was a lie, but Kantaris didn't care.

"Anyone could claim that."

"Anyone could claim to be on Team Rocket business when they're really just taking a _holiday_ in Johto."

"If you're cushy with the Boss," Domino said, "why don't you ask him yourself?"

"Maybe I will! And maybe I'll tell him that you stole from me."

"Mistaken identity!" Domino laughed a little and looked at Kantaris as if she were dirt. "Oh, he won't even _care_. He trusts me more than you can imagine. If you were anybody important, I'd know you already."

That was the wrong thing to say. Kantaris gritted her teeth as she felt herself blushing. "Oh, yeah?" she asked. "Well, _Domino_, it looks like we're kindred spirits: he trusts me, too."

"Good. So why don't you give me my stuff back?" Domino noticed that Kantaris wasn't carrying her bag. "Hey, where did you put my bag?"

"I dumped it in a random alleyway as I was leaving town," Kantaris replied with a sarcastic smile. "You'll have to go and get it yourself."

"Urgh." Domino smacked her own forehead with the heel of her hand. "Fine. Just give me my passport and ticket."

Kantaris hesitated, wondering whether she should. There was no reason why she shouldn't. She'd managed to get all of her stuff back. And if Domino was telling the truth, if she really was on a big Team Rocket job, Kantaris wouldn't want to mess that up...would she? Not even out of jealousy and spite? Not even for revenge? _I do like revenge._

The wind made up Kantaris's mind for her: a gentle breeze fanned the flame of her lighter just enough to make it catch the edge of the ticket that she was holding in her other hand. She'd been holding it much too close for comfort. Domino and Kantaris screamed simultaneously, the former in anger and the latter in pain as the flames licked at her fingers. Kantaris dropped the passport and the blazing ticket.

"Stamp it out!" Domino was shrieking.

Kantaris had never been good with fire, a strange thing considering the fact that she was a smoker. The soles of her boots were thick and sturdy but she could still imagine the flames burning through the rubber. Flapping her arms pathetically like a Pidgey trying to take flight, she kicked the inferno at her feet. The ticket blew away into the fields beyond, nothing but ashes. Domino's singed passport skidded to the edge of the road and she ran to pick it up.

"Can't beat that good old coastal breeze, huh?" Kantaris remarked after a very long, very awkward silence.

"You absolute imbecile!" Domino yelled. "The Boss is gonna kill you!"

"This would never have happened if you hadn't tried to steal from me!"

"I wouldn't have done it if you'd told me that you were a Rocket!"

"Who in their right mind would be stupid enough to do that? You never told me that you were a Rocket either!"

"Well, I thought you were just some innocent traveller that I could – "

"I thought _you _were!" Kantaris sighed through her teeth. "I only wanted your bracelet, for God's sake."

"Buy me another ticket for that ship and I'll give it to you."

"Forget it. I don't want your dumb bracelet anymore. It's probably not worth anything, anyway."

"Well, what am I supposed to do about getting to Johto?"

"If you're really a Rocket and if getting to Johto is a matter of life and death, you'll just sneak onto the ship or steal someone else's ticket. It's not hard." Kantaris turned around and carried on walking.

"Where are you going?" Domino demanded.

"To earn my next badge."

"Where's that?"

Kantaris shrugged. She hadn't decided an exact destination yet, so she picked one at random. "Saffron City."

"Saffron? I can get the Magnet Train to Goldenrod City from there, right?"

Kantaris stopped walking, not for the purpose of paying attention to Domino but because she had just realised something: she was going the wrong way. This road could only take her south to Fuschia City, from where she would have to go north again to get to Saffron or Celadon. A bit of a waste of time. It would be quicker to go back to Cerulean and cut through Rock Tunnel, maybe make a stopover in Lavender Town for a change of scenery even though there was nothing to see there.

"At least help me find my bag again!"

"If it'll get you to shut up," Kantaris muttered.

She kept walking, glad to be the one leading the way for a change. When she reached the alleyway where she had dumped Domino's bag, she pointed towards the trash cans. Domino made a generic sound of disgust and went to retrieve her bag which, fortunately, had not been left in a trash can but rather on the ground. It was still filthy. Domino sat back on her heels and tried to brush the dirt from her bag but turned around quickly when she saw Kantaris' shadow leaving the triangle of light that lay along the floor of the alley.

"Wait!" Domino chased after her.

"What now?"

"Did you steal something from out of here?"

"I took my stuff back. Otherwise there was nothing worth stealing."

"Where did you say you were going?"

Kantaris allowed Domino to catch up with her and gave her an angry glare. "What's it to you? Why do you care so much?"

Domino forced herself to look as calm and friendly as possible. Secretly, she was intrigued. Here was Kantaris, a Rocket – or so she claimed – and yet she was on the Gym Challenge. Domino didn't know too much about Pokémon, but she guessed that a trainer with three badges had to be on the road to something decent. Kantaris hadn't been very open about her rank, but she had to be an Elite if she could score enough time off to take the Gym Challenge. It was a long journey. A long time to be off work. A Grunt would never get that luxury. And if Kantaris was an Elite Rocket, maybe it would be worth Domino's time to hang around with her. Working for Team Rocket, you could never have enough allies. There was too much backstabbing going on. Friends were important. They were useful.

And what was more, Kantaris had claimed closeness to Giovanni. Domino had encountered several other Rockets who had claimed the same, and she had put them in their place each time. She might not have been as close to Giovanni as she had been before, but she still liked to think that she was his favourite. If anyone else challenged her to that title, Domino wanted to know what she was up against. Kantaris didn't look like much. She was no supermodel. Maybe she was lying, in which case Domino would eventually find out. If that were the case, she would get a sense of closure and satisfaction. Domino didn't like to have rivals for Giovanni's affection, especially as he gave out so very little affection to start with.

"If you're going back to Cerulean City, it makes sense that we should travel together."

"Another week with _you_?" Kantaris looked horrified. "I think I'd rather jump in the sea."

"Charming!"

"You annoyed the hell out of me, what with your stupid giggling and – "

"That was Kate, not me. It was just an act." Domino smiled a little. "I really convinced you, huh?"

"You convinced me that you were a brainless bimbo."

"That was the whole point, see? You underestimated me!" Domino stepped in front of Kantaris and donned a bright, warm smile. It was Kate's smile. "The friendliest face can hide the fiercest foe," she said cheerfully. "You just never know!"

"Get out of my face, Domino."

"Can't we bury the hatchet? Please? You got your stuff back, didn't you? If anyone should be angry, it should be me. But I'm not, you see. I probably _deserve_ to get in trouble with the Boss for trying to steal from another Rocket."

"Sounds like Kate talking." Kantaris tried to step around Domino who mirrored her movement and blocked her way again. "Why would I want to travel with you? Do you really think I can trust you after what you did?"

"If you want to argue that way, how can two Rockets ever trust each other, Kantaris?" the blonde girl asked, still cheerful. "We're all crooks, every single one of us."

Kantaris pondered this for a moment. "We're not sharing a hotel room," she said curtly. "If we can't afford separate ones, you can go and sleep on the street."

"It's a deal." Domino extended her hand. Kantaris ignored it and kept walking.

As it happened, Domino did not have to sleep on the street. The two girls stayed in Pokémon Centres during the journey back to Cerulean City; they could each have their own room and for free. Kantaris was sorely tempted to mention to the staff that Domino was not a trainer, ergo she should at least have to pay for her room, but she decided to be gracious and resist that temptation. After all, she hadn't lost anything, but Domino was going to get blasted by Giovanni for failing to get to Johto. Kantaris half-hoped that it would be a blasting from a gun, but if Domino was such a high-flying Rocket, that was unlikely.

It seemed that Domino had not been faking Kate's energised, fast walk. By the time they reached Cerulean, she was in the lead. Kantaris had calmed down somewhat, mainly due to Domino's friendliness and generosity over the past few days. They arrived in the city in the afternoon, by which time they had been travelling for a few hours without a break. Kantaris was mellow with exhaustion and hunger and didn't object when Domino led them onto a bus in the city centre.

"Where are we going?"

"My place," Domino replied.

"If you'd told me that, I wouldn't have followed you onto this bus."

"Listen..." Domino dropped her voice to a whisper. "I left my phone at home. I didn't realise until the day after we set off, and by then it was way too late to come back. I need that thing. The Boss calls me a lot."

Kantaris' expression was smug until Domino's last sentence. "You're gonna be in so much trouble," she muttered. It came out even more bitterly than she'd intended.

The prospect of seeing Domino's face when she phoned Giovanni to explain her failure made Kantaris secretly glad that she had followed her onto that bus after all. She hoped that she would get to overhear the conversation somehow. The sight of Domino's attractive suburban house added fuel to her fire of jealousy and made her anticipate the moment even more. She was so excited, in fact, that she didn't trust herself to speak in case she gloated in advance.

Domino unlocked her front door. It opened with some difficulty: there was a small pile of mail on the mat behind it. Domino sighed and muttered something about bills as she scooped up the envelopes and carried them into the lounge with her whereupon she dropped them onto the couch. Making a dive for the coffee table, she picked up a black cellphone identical to the one that Kantaris owned.

"There it is," she said. "It says I've missed nine calls."

"Better ring him back, honey!" Kantaris said, mimicking Kate's happy smile and tone of voice.

"Hey, instead of standing there and grinning like a Mr. Mime, make yourself useful." As she raised the phone to her ear, Domino pointed to a red card that lay atop the pile of mail that she had put down on the couch. "I missed a parcel. Go to the post office and pick it up."

Kantaris wasn't planning on going anywhere. She wanted to witness Domino's over-the-phone shaming. "You're not my boss. I don't take orders from you."

"It's only at the bottom of the road! You're so lazy!" Domino glanced at the brunette's midriff. "You need the exercise. Go."

"Hey!" Kantaris began indignantly. She was cut off mid-sentence when Domino suddenly raised a finger, gesturing to her to be quiet.

Kantaris obligingly stopped talking. She even bowed, servant-like, and wandered over to the couch to pick up the red card that Domino had been pointing at. She pretended to read it, raising her eyebrows in mock interest. It only said that there was an unnamed package waiting to be collected. Was Kantaris intending to collect it as a kind favour to a fellow Rocket? Maybe. But not yet. She settled down on the couch and listened in on Domino's conversation, making it clear that she was doing so. Domino turned her back.

"Sir...? Yes, this is 009..."

Kantaris bit back a laugh. She'd thought that Domino had been joking when she'd said that the Boss called her 'Agent 009'. _Apparently not._

"I'm still in Cerulean City, Sir. But I can explain – "

_This is it._ Kantaris disguised her grin with a forced yawn. _This is where he goes crazy at her._ She waited to hear the faint sound of Giovanni's shouting down the phone, but it didn't come. He couldn't have been shouting: Domino was still holding the phone to her ear. Kantaris couldn't see her face, but her body language and general aura did not indicate that she was being verbally punished. Then again, she was a Rocket. She was trained to hide things. Kantaris shifted her weight impatiently. _Maybe he's so angry, he can't even bring himself to yell at her._

"Cancelled?" Domino raised her voice and put a hand to her head as if to hold her hat in place. "B-but...Giovanni!"

_So she really does call him by name._ Kantaris' expression didn't change. It wasn't really that big a deal, after all.

"Yes, but – how did you know that?" There was a lengthy pause. "No, I just got back from Vermilion and I haven't checked yet. I'll have a look now."

Holding the phone behind her back, presumably so that Kantaris couldn't grab it, she walked over to the couch and began rifling through the pile of unsorted mail with her free hand, seizing random envelopes and scrutinising them before throwing them back down. Kantaris made no move to help her. After a few moments of frantic searching, Domino growled impatiently under her breath, put the phone down on the arm of the couch and began to open the envelopes one by one. Each time, she would remove the contents, glance at them and put them back. She continued this way through five or six envelopes until she found what she was looking for.

Picking up the phone again, she shook the letter free from its envelope and unfolded it. Kantaris leaned over, attempting to read it, but Domino was already walking off to the other side of the room again, letter in hand. At last, there was a reaction. The blonde girl looked as though she had been shot as she read the letter and heard whatever Giovanni might have been saying on the other end of the line.

"You can't be serious," she whispered.

Kantaris couldn't contain her curiosity. "What?" she hissed, almost silently. "What's going on?"

Domino drew her finger across her neck. "No," she said sullenly into the phone. "I understand. You know I'll do whatever you ask me to do." Another pause. "Can I ask why, though?" She paused again; this time her silence was perforated by a sigh. "Things must have _really_ changed if you can't even tell me – ...no, I know it's not my business, but you've always – _yes_! I said I'll do it!"

She lowered the phone from her ear and looked at it with a mixture of betrayal and lingering shock. She stood like that for a few seconds, motionless as a statue, before throwing the phone down onto the seat of the nearest armchair. She returned to the couch, swept the mail onto the floor with both hands and sat down with her head in her hands and her elbows resting on her thighs. It wouldn't have been an exaggeration to say that she looked like she'd just been fired.

"What's going on?" Kantaris asked again, more gently this time.

For a while, she thought that Domino wasn't going to reply. She merely shook her head mutely. Then she looked at Kantaris in mild confusion and pointed at her with her index finger. "You..."

"Me?"

"I don't know who the hell you are," Domino said, "but just go to the post office and get that parcel, will you? I told you already."

"I need some proof of your address," Kantaris said calmly, as if that were the true reason why she hadn't carried out Domino's request.

"You're surrounded by it, dumbass!" Domino furiously picked up a handful of envelopes and letters from the floor and threw them at the girl beside her.

Kantaris raised her eyebrows. "What's rattled _your_ cage? Did you get fired or something?"

"No."

Kantaris nodded towards the significant letter that Domino had now screwed up into a ball in her hand. "What's in the letter? Hey, you'd better not have driven him to suicide, Dom."

"Will you just get going? I need some time to think."

Kantaris sometimes knew when to quit. This was one of those occasions. Domino was visibly angry, and she probably had a fierce temper. Kantaris wasn't in the mood to deal with spittings from a bitchy Elite Rocket. So, without another word, she took the red card and another letter to the post office to collect Domino's package. It was a small cube-shaped thing, wrapped in brown paper. There was a label on it, printed with Domino's address but with no name. Kantaris considered opening it as she walked back to Domino's house, but she didn't want to make her any more irate.

When she knocked on the door, the blonde Rocket opened it wearily and let her in. She didn't look so angry anymore. She looked worn out. Her face was blank but her unusual violet eyes were dull and downcast. Kantaris put the package down on the coffee table. To her surprise, Domino ignored it.

"Aren't you gonna open it? It might be something that'll make you feel better."

With a hefty sigh, as if it were too much trouble, Domino picked up the parcel and tore the paper off haphazardly. There was a plain white box inside. She opened it and a Pokéball fell out into her hand. She stared at it, her face unreadable. Before long, she tossed it to Kantaris who only just caught it.

"Why...?"

"It's no use to me, is it?" Domino turned around and walked out of the lounge. Kantaris followed her into the kitchen. "I told you I'm not a trainer. Tea or coffee?"

"Whatever you're having." Kantaris leaned against the door frame and looked at the other girl quizzically, turning the Pokéball over in her hand like a miniature globe. "You're not a trainer at all?"

"I've never thrown a Pokéball in my life." Domino had to stand on tiptoes to reach the top shelf of the overhead cupboard; like Kantaris, she wasn't very tall. "It'll have to be coffee. It's all I've got left."

"Then...how did you get so far in Team Rocket?"

"I have other skills," she replied, heaping out the coffee beans. "_Lots _of other skills. I don't need Pokémon. How many sugars?"

"Two." _'Other skills', huh?_

"Pokémon are unreliable," Domino continued as she put two spoonfuls of sugar into each coffee. "Pokémon need to be trained and cared for if they're to battle effectively. As for me, I'd rather devote my time to taking care of my good self. That way, I keep my head clear and I work more efficiently. And that's the key to being a good Rocket. Efficiency and precision. Pokémon would just get in my way." She filled each mug with hot water from the kettle and handed one to Kantaris without a smile.

"Thanks," Kantaris said uneasily as she took it. "But you must have done some training at some point. Otherwise, how did you pass through Rocket Academy?"

"I didn't."

"Youdidn't? How is that possible?"

"I was _born_ a Rocket," Domino replied, somewhat proudly. "My parents were Rockets."

"Did they have a problem with using Pokémon, too?"

"No, but they never made it a huge priority. They brought me up with the right values – "

"Don't you mean the _wrong _values?"

"Depends where you're coming from. You're a Rocket. You should know exactly what I mean. Listen, if you need to do laundry or anything else, you'd better do it tonight."

Kantaris was baffled. "Why? What's my laundry got to do with you?"

"A great deal, from now on." Domino turned to her and smiled. It was a very forced smile; that was plain to see. "I'm gonna be travelling with you for a while longer."

"Oh? Whatever happened to your life-or-death Johto expedition?"

"It died," the blonde girl replied plainly. "Or it's been delayed, at least."

"Delayed for how long? I'm going to be travelling for at least another month, probably more. You're gonna get bored, especially seen as you don't give a damn about Pokémon training."

"I can keep myself busy, don't worry."

"What is this to you?" Kantaris asked with unabashed suspicion in both her face and her voice. "A holiday? A time-waste? Tell me."

"You don't need to read into it. We'll be two Rockets, blazing our way through Kanto. Think of the possibilities."

"Ah. So it's a crime spree you're after." Kantaris put her coffee down on the worktop. "In another place and time, Domino, I'd love to. But I'm already on a spree. A Pokémon Gym spree."

Domino smiled. "Who says you can't do both?"


	8. The Wanderer Returns

**DISCLAIMER:** I don't own Pokémon, any of its characters or any of its place names. If I did, it would be full of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll and wouldn't be suitable for kiddies. This story is rated for occasional bad language, mild innuendo and a few references to drugs and violence. It won't break your eyes, I promise.

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:** While I'm here with nothing else to say, I thought I'd write a quick note about the **Pokémon Defence League**. As far as I know, they **don't exist** in any of the canons. I made them up, but if you've seen the Lake of Rage anime episodes with Lance, you might think of them as the 'Pokémon G-Men' (of which Lance is a member...the only member, apparently) – but more hardcore. Or, if you're a fan of the manga, they could be a bit like the 'evil' Elite Four.

Since I started writing the very first version of this fic several years ago, a real-life group has been founded with a similar name (they're an English political group founded in 2009, you may have heard of them...), so I just wanted to say that I didn't base the PDL on this group whatsoever. Neither are they directly based on PETA or ALF (or any other animal rights groups), although you might find some similarities.

* * *

_**Chapter 8**_

_**The Wanderer Returns**_

Travelling with Domino was the last thing that Kantaris wanted to do. There was something strangely motherly and authoritarian about her, despite the similarity in age between the two girls. Kantaris reluctantly went to bed early, only to lie awake and wonder why on earth she was being so obedient. Her cold only added to her irritation. She tossed and turned, contemplating how she could lose this new companion. _Sounds like she wants to do some pillaging_, she thought, glancing at the wall beyond which Domino's bedroom lay. _I could always make sure that she gets arrested. But then again, I'd probably get tangled up with the police in the process. That would just cause trouble for Team Rocket, not to mention putting an end to my Gym Challenge…_

_I'm calling the shots here. This is my journey. We'll just go somewhere where there's absolutely nothing to do. She'll crack before I do. _Kantaris grinned, pulled the covers over her head and allowed herself to fall asleep. She would have woken up happy the next day were it not for the sound of Domino banging on the door.

"Wake up! It's eight o'clock! We have to talk about where we're going!"

When Kantaris finally made it downstairs, she noticed that the living room and kitchen had both been meticulously tidied; there were no more envelopes littering the floor.

"I'm not a Pokémon person," Domino said from the couch, "so you'll have to tell me what route we're taking."

"Whatever route takes us to Lavender Town."

Kantaris expected her to complain. Surely she would want to head straight into Saffron City for this 'crime spree' of hers. But, to her annoyance, Domino nodded in accord.

"Have you ever been there before?" Kantaris asked, surprised at the blonde girl's lack of a reaction.

"Nope. I've never had any reason to go there. It's an empty little town."

"I know. I hear it's the most depressing place in Kanto."

"Why do you want to go there, then?"

"I want to chill out for a few days."

"I thought you were on a Gym Challenge, not a holiday."

"Who says you can't do both?" Kantaris asked with a smile, quoting what Domino had said the previous evening. "And seen as this is _my_ trip, we're going at _my_ pace."

"A Slowpoke's pace. I get it."

To Kantaris' surprise, Domino knew the way to Rock Tunnel, not because she had travelled that way before but because it was close to her workplace. Apparently, she had not been lying about that. As they walked, Kantaris couldn't help but ask questions.

"How does a high-ranking Rocket get a job with the Pokémon Institute, anyway? Sounds pretty convenient to me."

"Rockets are everywhere, Kantaris," Domino replied with confidence. "Even in the police force." She suddenly wrinkled her nose. "Do you know how fussy your name sounds? Can I just call you 'K' instead?"

"Call me what you want."

"Ooh, where to begin?"

Since Domino really didn't want the Pokémon that had been delivered to her, Kantaris had kept it for herself. She was sure that it wasn't just an empty Pokéball. It felt just a little too heavy, a little too _alive_. But, on the other hand, she couldn't quite bring herself to believe that anyone would deliver a Pokémon through the mail, especially to a non-trainer. Maybe it was something to do with Domino's job. Her_ legitimate_ job.

"Are you gonna tell me what the Boss said to you on the phone? Or what he wrote in that letter?"

"Nope."

Kantaris berated her luck. She had met two Rockets on her journey, but neither of them had any news that they were willing to share. She had believed in Jet's ignorance about the Cerulean City science project, but it was quite clear that Domino was hiding something. Whatever it was, Kantaris would get it out of her sooner or later.

When they reached Rock Tunnel, Kantaris shrank back a little as she gazed into its black entrance. She placed a tentative hand on the wall, unhappy about the prospect of spending a day travelling through such a cold, dark place. Furthermore, she was tired, but she expected that she would catch her death of hypothermia if she attempted to take a nap in Rock Tunnel.

"Don't look so scared, K," Domino said. "I've got a torch, remember?"

She took the lead once more and Kantaris followed, albeit with great reluctance. The tunnel was narrow for quite some time before it widened and split into two lanes, one for bicycles, the other for foot passengers. All of the cyclists had torches attached to their helmets. At one point, Kantaris made the mistake of looking up at the roof. Amidst the jagged stalactites, Zubats went about their business. Water continuously dripped down and Kantaris's thin jacket did little to keep her warm. Soon she was damp and shivering, glaring at Domino's pretty, fur-lined coat. But by the time they reached the other end of the tunnel, however, she was looking considerably happier, the result of having managed to catch a Geodude that had been lurking in the shadows of the tunnel. She was now carrying the Pokéball in her hand.

"I thought you were only allowed six Pokémon," Domino remarked.

"You're only allowed intobattle with six Pokémon," Kantaris corrected her. "That's why the belts only have six slots. You canown as many as you want. You really think the Boss only has six Pokémon?"

"Now_ there's _an opportunity for cheating," Domino mused.

"How?"

"You take your spare Pokémon with you, but keep them hidden. When you've worked out your opponent's strategy and weaknesses, you just switch 'em."

Kantaris was about to reply that it was not worth the hassle or the risk of getting caught, but she couldn't help wondering whether Domino's simple idea could work in an advanced battle. She was sure that, in places such as Indigo Plateau, the security would be one step ahead of any potential cheaters. _I wouldn't dare_, she thought, her throat tightening as she imagined what would happen if she tried to play that trick on a trainer such as Lance. She made a mental note to check into her online storage system at the next Pokémon centre and put the Geodude away. She had only caught it for the sake of warming herself up and relieving her boredom.

The two girls completed their trip through Rock Tunnel and found themselves standing on a gently sloping hill, gazing down into a valley which held a tiny town: there was little more than a church, a tower and a few shops and houses. The view was breathtaking. Kantaris was a city girl, born and raised, and had never seen anything like it. It looked like the archetypal mountain village. The church bell tolled seven times; it sounded as if it were miles away.

"I hope I can get signal around here," Domino muttered, ruining the rare tranquil moment that Kantaris was having. "I need to make a phone call."

She wandered off, phone in hand, waving it around like a metal detector in her attempts to find a spot where the signal was strong enough. Kantaris watched her for a few moments before walking in the opposite direction, in search of a quiet place to sit and rest. Her quest took her a little further down the hill where, to her horror, she saw Ivan sitting on a bench. She turned around at once, but he had already seen her. As he called her name, she raised her eyes to the cloudless evening sky in silent, desperate prayer.

"I have a bone to pick with you, Rocket."

"I've realised," she replied. Deciding that Ivan was not going to ruin her appreciation of the view over Lavender Town, she sat down on the damp grass and folded her arms obstinately, staring out over the valley.

"You've got a few more Pokémon with you." He nodded at the Pokéball in her hand. "You're only allowed six. Didn't you know that?"

"If you'd shut up and let me get to a Pokémon Centre..." Kantaris shook her head, too tired to even finish her sentence.

"Oh, don't worry. I'm leaving. There's nothing to see around here."

Kantaris waited until she had heard Ivan's footsteps trudging off. She groaned and ran her hands over her face, scarcely able to believe that she had managed to run into him yet again. The atmosphere was ruined. She suddenly felt the urge to press on and get her next badge as soon as possible. But that was out of the question. Getting out of Lavender Town at this time would be impossible unless they continued walking, and Kantaris was too tired for that. Neither was she really in the mood for the familiar, bustling metropolis of Saffron that waited on the other side of the mountains. No, a motel or Pokémon Centre in Lavender Town would do for tonight.

* * *

The next day, Kantaris and Domino set off as soon as they were awake and ready. Kantaris looked back over her shoulder wistfully as they made their way to the underground station that lay just outside the village. Lavender Town was just as pretty in daylight as it was in twilight, and Kantaris thought that she may well have enjoyed it, were it not for her brief run-in with Ivan and Domino's constant remarks about how it was '_full of hillbillies_'. The blonde girl seemingly had an endless supply of energy and had wanted to go out that night; of course, there were little opportunities for wild nights out in Lavender Town and Kantaris was too much of a coward to go exploring the tower, so she had been disappointed.

But the girls were now on their way to Celadon City, via the underground train that could take them there directly, without having to pass through the chaos of Saffron. Domino was excited, Kantaris somewhat tense. Domino's suggestions about a two-woman crime spree were still lingering in her mind, and she dreaded what would happen when they were surrounded by people with plenty of opportunities. Her fears were not unjustified. After they had boarded the busy train, Domino suddenly caught Kantaris's attention with a wink. They were standing up, each one of them holding onto a nearby pole for stability's sake. They were facing each other, but there was a businessman standing more or less between them, his face buried in a newspaper.

As Kantaris watched, Domino slipped her hand into his pocket, bold as brass, and took out what looked like a credit card holder. Safely on the platform at Celadon City, the two Rockets watched as the businessman walked off, briefcase in hand and the newspaper under his arm, completely unaware of the fact that he'd just been robbed. Domino laughed.

"Reminds me of my squaddie days," she remarked. She turned to Kantaris with a smug smile. "Bet you can't do that."

"Psh." Kantaris rolled her eyes. "Watch."

She beckoned Domino with a jerk of her head and they continued walking towards the exit, weaving their way in and out of people. Although Kantaris knew the station and the city quite well, she pretended to be lost and squinted at the maps on the walls. It was while she was looking around in this touristy daze that she stepped into the path of a well-dressed lady who had her head down and was visibly in a rush. They collided. Kantaris apologised at once and kept walking. When she and Domino emerged from the station, she took a small purse from her pocket, threw it up in the air and caught it again.

"Not bad for a Grunt. Where'd you learn to do that?"

"Quick fingers and a lot of practice." Kantaris emptied the contents of the purse into her pocket. "Listen, I have some business to take care of. Meet me back here in a couple of hours."

Without waiting for an answer, she set off in a different direction, towards one of Celadon's City's less-than-squeaky-clean areas. It was here that the Rocket Amusement Corner was located. Therein lay the 'business' that Kantaris had been talking about. She burst into the building like an overenthusiastic gambler, ignoring the stares from the hapless patrons, and clattered her way down the stairs in the back room. She ran past countless Rockets, none of whom acknowledged her. Most of them looked blank, as though they didn't recognise her. Just as Kantaris was beginning to wonder why, she ran smack into Samantha, one of her ex-flatmates, who gave her a half-hearted high five.

"Well, well. The wanderer returns."

"What are you doing in Celadon?" Kantaris asked.

"I live here now."

"You do? What happened to the flat?"

"Without your bonuses, we couldn't afford it. Rental properties in Celadon are cheaper."

"But you were part of the Saffron squadron!"

"I was. Now I'm not." By now, a small crowd of Rocket Grunts had gathered, glad of the excuse to have a break. "Never mind that. Have you caught anything yet? I'm talking about Pokémon, by the way, not diseases or anything else."

Kantaris was so eager to tell Samantha about her successes that she didn't notice the scathing remark. "I've caught so many Pokémon that I've lost count." It was a slight exaggeration.

"Have you _stolen _anything, more importantly?"

Kantaris looked around nervously. A dozen pairs of eyes were trained on her, waiting for an answer. "I've stolen a few things. Nothing major."

"Nothing major? Why not?" Samantha demanded. "The Boss won't be very pleased to hear that."

"It's different when you're a trainer."

"We're_ all_ trainers here."

"It's different when you're a trainer _outside _Team Rocket." Kantaris tried to brush it off. "I just find it harder these days. I'm travelling with someone – "

"Really? Who?"

"Just some girl."

"And you're still on the Gym Challenge? Let's see your badges." Samantha folded her arms and looked at Kantaris sceptically.

Kantaris was only too happy to comply with that request. She opened her coat – she'd moved her badges from the pocket to the inner lining where they would be safer. Her teammates had mixed reactions. Some of them were awestruck. Others didn't believe that the badges were genuine. Samantha turned around and whispered something; the Rockets behind her laughed amongst themselves.

"Tell me," Samantha said between giggles, "did you actually battle for those? Or did you just sleep with the Gym Leaders?"

Kantaris fastened her jacket, put her hands in her pockets and waited for the laughter to die down. "I battled for them," she said calmly, "just like everyone else does."

"That's more than can be said for your Team Rocket pay checks!" someone yelled from far off.

The Rockets laughed again. Kantaris looked disgusted as she glanced in the direction of Giovanni's office.

"He's not here," Samantha said.

"He's not?"

"It's Friday. He's at the Gym. Aren't you the one who knows his schedule off by heart?" Samantha rolled her eyes at Kantaris' frown. "Don't tell me you came back here just to see the Boss. The Gym Challenge must be a nightmare if you're taking time out just for him."

"If you must know, I came here to earn my next badge."

"Well, this ain't the Gym. The Gym's out that way." Samantha pointed over Kantaris' shoulder and gave her a false smile. "Good luck. Shall I tell Sir that you called?"

Kantaris swatted her hand away. "Why do you have to be like this? I call in to say hello and this is the welcome that I get?"

"If you're privileged enough to get permission to go running off instead of working, you should make the most of it."

Kantaris set off walking towards the exit; Samantha followed, probably to check that her ex-flatmate left the premises. As they walked, Kantaris suddenly thought of a question. It was something that she'd been hearing about, just before she left.

"Weren't we meant to be doing something at Mount Moon?"

"Yeah, we were. But we nearly got busted and had to move out before we could even get started."

"They have cops at Mount Moon now?" Kantaris asked uneasily.

"Not cops. Pokémon Defence League rangers. Apparently there was a heist there not long ago and they've deemed the place unsafe."

"Oh." Kantaris wondered, in the back of her mind, whether the 'heist' was the little round of stealing that she and Jet had committed when they had been there. "The Pokémon Defence League in Mount Moon, huh? That's scary."

"Yeah, and things are going downhill fast around here."

"Gee, you make me want to stay."

"Forget it. You're just a Grunt, it's not as if we're missing you."

The two girls rounded the corner that led to the stairwell, still talking. As Kantaris gripped the banister, she looked up the stairs and almost cried out in shock. Domino was standing there, halfway up the stairs, arms akimbo. Samantha, too, halted in her tracks, thinking that Domino was an intruder: she wasn't wearing uniform.

"Domino...!"

"You know her?" Samantha stared at Kantaris. "Who the hell is she? If you've led someone here, Kantaris, you'll be dead before noon!"

"No, she's...it's okay, she's one of us."

Samantha continued to look unhappy. "What do you mean by 'one of us'?" She glanced at Domino. "Is she a squaddie?"

"I'm certainly not!" Domino replied. "I'm an Executive. Agent 009, to be exact. They call me the Black – "

"But at least she's a Rocket," Kantaris said, giving Samantha a pleading look. "I'm sorry. I didn't know she'd followed me here."

"You told me you were an Elite, Kantaris," Domino remarked.

"Why doesn't that surprise me?" Samantha smirked. "You've overstepped the mark now. Telling bare-faced lies about your rank is a Team Rocket crime."

"I never said that I was an Elite."

"How do you two know each other, anyway?" Samantha asked, pointing from one girl to the other.

"This is the travelling partner that I mentioned," Kantaris explained.

"You're travelling with an Executive? Why doesn't _that _surprise me either?"

"I'm keeping an eye on her," Domino said sweetly.

"No, you're not!" Kantaris glanced at her former roommate. "She isn't keeping an eye on me."

"Well, she managed to follow you here," Samantha observed.

"No, I've always wanted to check out the Amusement Corner," Domino said, saving Kantaris from further humiliation. "I'm from the Cerulean area, you see."

What followed was an awkward silence, an unspoken stand-off. Kantaris looked like she wanted the ground to swallow her up, Samantha was staring at her in triumphal amusement and Domino still had her hands on her hips. The look on her face was unreadable, but it wasn't a pleasant one. Kantaris thought hard about her badges, clinging to them in her mind like some sort of comfort blanket.

"Excuse me," she muttered. "I have a Gym battle to win."

She ascended the stairs slowly, keeping her head down; Domino moved aside to let her pass. Domino and Samantha heard the door at the top of the stairs slam shut. They looked at each other.

"Did she really tell you she was an Elite?" Samantha asked.

"She didn't tell me that she wasn't."

"But you didn't know she was a Grunt?"

"I had an inkling." Domino came down the stairs and gazed down the corridor that led into the base. "I've heard about this place. Show me around."


	9. Revelations

**DISCLAIMER:** I don't own Pokemon, any of its characters or any of its place names. If I did, it would be full of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll and wouldn't be suitable for kiddies. This story is rated for occasional bad language, mild innuendo and a few references to drugs and violence. It won't break your eyes, I promise.

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:** I rarely look forward to writing serious battle scenes. When I wrote the predecessor/original version of this fic, I asked readers what they wanted me to do with the battles, because it was so unlike anything I'd never written before. The general consensus was that I should write out the important battles properly. I've stuck with that in this rewrite but if anyone has a different opinion, please feel free to share it.

* * *

_**Chapter 9**_

_**Revelations**_

Kantaris had not battled for a few days. She knew the order of her Pokémon out of sheer habit now; the closest one to her right hand was Stella, and the rest followed more or less in the order in which she'd captured them. Pineco was no longer there; she'd dropped it into her online storage system back in Vermilion City. Running her fingers over her belt as she walked down a wide, tree-lined avenue in Celadon City, she counted six Pokéballs and laid a tentative hand over the last one. It was the one that Domino had let her keep, after it had been delivered to her house. But it still didn't make any sense. _Who the hell sends out free Pokémon by mail without an explanation?_

She began to wonder whether there'd been an accompanying note with the package that Domino might have missed. _Or that she hid from me_, she thought, remembering Domino's private phone conversation with the Boss and the letter that she had been so keen to keep out of Kantaris' hands. She had not yet released the Pokémon, not even for the sake of seeing what it was. Realising that it would be a shot in her own strategical foot to go into a Gym without knowing exactly what was on her belt, Kantaris took a quick detour to a small Pokémon centre and sat down at the computer. She had used the system only once before, to deposit her Geodude and Pineco when they'd arrived in Lavender Town. Hopefully, this would be an even simpler process. She only wanted to know what was inside the Pokéball that she placed beneath the scanner.

_An Eevee_? Kantaris stared at the screen and pressed a few buttons, adamant that there must be some mistake. The picture was definitely that of an Eevee. Her knowledge of Pokémon wasn't perfect, but she had seen an Eevee before, most recently when that pest Ivan had stolen a wild one from beneath her nose. _Could it be from him_? she wondered. Maybe his conscience had finally gotten the better of him and – _But how would he have known where to send it? _Kantaris took her Pokéball, fixed it to her belt and left the Pokémon Centre, still deep in thought. She cast her mind back to their last meeting, short as it had been. Hadn't Ivan said something when he'd noticed that she had a full belt of Pokémon? Had he not sounded surprised, even a little annoyed? _He could have been acting._

Still, the fact that the Eevee had been delivered to Domino's house before she had even _met _Kantaris ruled out any faint possibility that it could have been meant for Kantaris at all. It had to be a coincidence – and a lucky one. Of course, the question remained as to who sent it, even if they'd intended it to be for Domino. It had to be someone who didn't know that Domino wasn't a trainer. But as she knew very little about Domino's life outside Team Rocket, Kantaris could not even begin to guess.

"Let's just hope it can make itself useful in a Gym battle," she said aloud.

As she entered the Celadon City Gym, she sneezed. It was one of those tell-tale, sudden-but-violent sneezes that often plagued her in the middle of summer, especially when she went out of the city. _But it's winter_, she thought, sneezing again. Looking around the room, she saw why. She had just walked into a large indoor garden. The walls were hidden behind layers of vines and climbing plants, and thick grass grew underfoot. It had just been cut. Wiping her eyes, Kantaris checked the directions that she had scribbled down onto a piece of paper.

"The Celadon Gym?" a voice asked beside her. "This is it."

Kantaris noticed that she no longer flinched at the sight of a League official. Instead, as she held out her trainer card, she found herself wondering whether there were any female officials. _Or whether some of these guys work for the Pokémon Defence League in their spare time._ A sudden expression of fear came over her face and her hand shook slightly as she handed the card over.

"Is that a challenger?"

Kantaris gazed in the direction of the new voice and caught a glimpse of two feminine, barefoot legs and the hem of a pale dress amongst the rows of trees. It sounded as though the girl was watering the plants - and talking to them. Before long, she came into full sight and greeted Kantaris with a polite nod of her head. Kantaris responded with a fit of sneezing.

"Are you okay?" the girl asked concernedly.

Kantaris managed to choke out one word: "G-grass."

"Yes, we use grass Pokémon here. I'm sorry it's so obvious. I just love greenery."

_So I see_, Kantaris thought. "No," she said, holding her nose as if to prevent further sneezing. "It's the pollen."

"Oh, you're allergic?"

She nodded, and the girl gave her a look that was somewhere between sympathy and disapproval. She shook her head and her ebony bangs quivered above her eyes. "In that case," she said, "we should make this a speedy battle, if you're here as a challenger."

"Oh." Kantaris stared at her. "You're the Gym Leader?"

"Yes. My name is Erika. I run this Gym." She gave a warm smile. "Amongst other things."

_Other things such as talking to trees_? Kantaris might have laughed if she had not sneezed again. She covered it up with a hasty, "Nice to meet you."

"Are you a challenger? Or can I help you with something else?"

"Erika, this is Sofia from Viridian City," the League official explained. Kantaris couldn't help but roll her eyes at the mistake, yet again. It was almost offensive to her. She was proud to be a Saffron City girl. Maybe there was a way of getting her trainer card altered. Then again, there was probably a reason why the Rocket Academy had decided to state that she was from Viridian.

"Then, shall we go through into the Gym? It's just this way."

Erika turned around and disappeared amongst the rows of trees again. Kantaris followed, still sneezing, the League official behind her. At the end of the room was a set of automatic glass doors. They opened silently onto yet another grass-covered room, but this one didn't make Kantaris feel quite so heady. The air was moist, and when Kantaris looked down she saw that the grass under her feet seemed to be covered in dew. There were no battlefield markings to speak of, but the League official took his place near the wall.

"We keep the room wet," Erika said, pointing to a series of sprinklers in the ceiling. "You might guess why."

"Oh, sure," Kantaris replied with a nod. In truth, she neither knew the reason nor particularly cared. She was there for a Pokémon battle, not to exchange gardening tips.

"May I begin, then?" Erika asked politely when she had reached the far end of the room. "I play three-on-three, as standard." She exchanged nods with the official.

"Ready when you are." Kantaris had already seized Quilava's Pokéball. _This one_, she thought,_ is going to be a walkover. It might even be another case of overkill._

"Vileplume, go!"

Kantaris hesitated momentarily, gazing at what was presumably Oddish's final form. She had never seen one before. It certainly looked a lot more powerful than her own weedy little Oddish. Its body was solid and robust, and the plant on its head looked nothing short of noxious. A wispy cloud of dust was already rising from it, giving off an acrid smell. Kantaris realised at once that she didn't have any antidotes to hand. Or anything else, for that matter. She hadn't bought a single healing item in years, in fact. She barely remembered what some of them were for.

"Aren't you going to release your Pokémon?"

Holding her breath, Kantaris rolled Quilava's Pokéball forward from a distance. The fire Pokémon emerged and instantly put its nose to the grass as though it were literally crippled by its opponent's stench. Perhaps this wouldn't be such a walkover after all.

"Never mind that," Kantaris hissed angrily, even though she was gripping her own nose. "Torch it with Ember!"

Quilava shook its head as if trying to shake off Vileplume's scent. It turned away in order to draw the breath necessary for its attack, and in that moment, Erika chose to attack. "We've got it, Vileplume! Toxic!"

Vileplume projected something dark and sticky from the centre of its huge flower-head. Quilava was drenched and lost the breath that it had taken, crying out as if in pain. Kantaris felt a stab of alarm, but her anxiety quickly mutated into impatience.

"Attack already!"

With another cry, Quilava finally unleashed its Ember attack. Its aim was off, but Vileplume's large body made an easy target. Kantaris noticed that it wasn't very steady on its feet. It was top-heavy and stumbled around as it tried to avoid the flaming fireballs that were hurtling in its direction. Most of the time, it swerved right into harm's way.

"Well, at least it has a weakness," Kantaris mused aloud.

"But don't underestimate its strength!" Erika replied. "Vileplume, Sunny Day!"

Through the full-length glass windows that lined the two longest walls of the room, the sunlight became noticeably brighter and Kantaris felt a warmth that was definitely out of place for this time of year. She was momentarily awestruck at the idea that a Pokémon could control the weather; then she remembered that she had heard about this type of attack before, although she didn't know what purpose it would serve in an indoor arena.

"Tackle, Quilava!" Kantaris changed her mind almost as soon as she had spoken. "No, wait. Don't go near it. Flamethrower instead!"

"Solarbeam, _now_!" Erika commanded at once.

Vileplume aimed its head towards its opponent and a beam of pure light shot forth, forcing Kantaris to cover her eyes. When she dared to open them again, she saw the white brightness of Vileplume's Solarbeam countered by the glow of her own Pokemon's Flamethrower. Both were going strong, but Quilava was slowly forcing Vileplume to retreat. It was still a grass-type Pokémon, after all. Kantaris now realised why Erika chose to keep the room wet: where wisps of flame flew loose from Quilava's attack, they fizzled into nothing when they hit the grass on the floor. Running out of breath at last, Quilava ended the Flamethrower but boldly threw itself at the weakened Vileplume with its claws outstretched. It was the coup-de-grace. Vileplume was bowled over and no longer had the strength to raise its heavy upper body from the battlefield.

"Vileplume is unable to battle! Victory for this round goes to our challenger!"

"That was the best Flamethrower I've seen!" Kantaris remarked, feeling proud of her Quilava for the first time.

"Sunny Day was a mistake." Erika withdrew her Vileplume. "It helps my Pokémon, but it also makes fire-based attacks much stronger."

Kantaris was about to grin when she noticed the sunlight fading. Her face fell. But it was strange, she thought, that a Gym Leader would talk so openly about tactics right in the middle of a battle.

"My next Pokémon will be..." Erika unclipped a Pokéball from her belt and threw it into the air. "Tangela!"

The red energy from the Pokéball took the form of yet another Pokémon that the challenger had never seen before. Two eyes peered out from a mass of what_ looked_ like vines, but constantly moved over and under each other like a ball of snakes. Erika's Pokémon were an assault on the senses. Kantaris also noticed that the flaming spots on Quilava's back had dimmed, probably as a result of that huge Flamethrower. Maybe it was time to give the fire a rest for a while.

"At least this one doesn't stink," she muttered. "Quick Attack!"

Barking in agreement, Quilava ran as fast as its legs would carry it on dampened grass and took a leap. It appeared to soar above Tangela, who merely watched it, not moving an inch. Then, without warning, vines shot out from its body and seized the fire Pokémon straight out of the air.

"Good!" Erika exclaimed. "You know what to do next!

Kantaris watched as Erika's Pokémon pulled Quilava into a tangled embrace and showered it with the unmistakable violet glitter that was Poison Powder. And 'showered' was not an exaggeration. By the time it let go, the colour of Quilava's fur was no longer visible. The fire Pokémon took just a few steps before it collapsed onto the grass. A double poisoning had to hurt. Kantaris withdrew it without a word.

"Quilava is unable to battle! This round goes to the Gym Leader!"

Kantaris hesitated, unsure of which Pokémon to use next. Relying on Stella was a habit that she was trying to break. Thunder was a party piece, of course, but it wouldn't do much good against a grass Pokémon. Diglett and Staryu wouldn't be an option here. So, that left only Oddish...and the mysterious Eevee that she'd acquired. If it was an Eevee at all. Maybe it was a hoax of some sort. She could only imagine the embarrassment that would ensue if it turned out to be an empty Pokéball. So, instead, she wondered if there was a grass-type equivalent of the phrase 'fight fire with fire'.

"Oddish, you're up next!"

"Oh, how lovely!" Erika remarked.

"Let's see if you take it as well as you give it," Kantaris muttered in reply. "Poison Powder!"

A clump of purple dust shot from Oddish's leaves. Tangela used its vines to obscure its face, and it looked like the attack had been a waste of time. Kantaris realised that this may have been an error of judgement. What could an Oddish possibly do against an opponent like this when it didn't even have a type advantage? _Or does it? Isn't Oddish a poison-type Pokémon as well?_

"Vine Whip, Tangela!"

_Oh, it would have to have Vine Whip, wouldn't it?_ Kantaris said to herself in dismay as she watched her Pokémon fleeing from what looked like a hundred vines. Before it had even completed a lap of the battlefield, Oddish stopped. Kantaris thought that it was just exhausted, but she noticed that Tangela stopped the chase and withdrew its vines. Oddish began to glow, and by now Kantaris knew what was about to happen.

"Hey, I'm getting a Gloom!" she said, showing more excitement than she'd intended.

"Hmm, this could be interesting!"

As soon as it had finished evolving, the newly-formed Gloom began to run again, pursued once more by Tangela. If it hadn't been a serious battle, Kantaris might have laughed at the sheer comedy of it. But she was too preoccupied with wondering what new attacks her Pokémon may have gained now that the flower on its head was beginning to bloom.

"Constrict, Tangela!"

Those deadly vines seized Gloom, coiling around its body like a spring. The attack did exactly what it said on the tin. _Maybe I can use this to my advantage_, Kantaris said silently. "Acid!"

Still writhing in its opponent's stringy grasp, Gloom projected a dark green liquid from its flower. Tangela let go at once and stumbled backwards. Some of its vines lay on the battlefield, either torn loose by Gloom's struggling or burned off by the attack. It was the starkest example of real, in-battle damage that Kantaris had ever seen, and although she didn't feel sorry for Erika's Pokémon in the slightest, she felt a little queasy. The Gym Leader, however, didn't seem at all shocked.

"Oh, we need to nip this one in the bud!" she said, pausing to giggle at her own pun. "Sleep Powder!"

Apparently unaffected by the loss of some of its vines, Tangela immediately blew a mist of grey-blue powder in Gloom's direction. The challenger's Pokémon fell, face-first, into the grass. She hesitated, unsure if she should wait and see if it woke up on its own, but as she watched Tangela bouncing on the spot, anticipating another command from Erika, she decided that it was probably a bad idea.

"Any intervention from the trainer?" the League official asked.

With a shake of her head, Kantaris took Gloom's Pokéball from her belt. "Return, then."

"Victory for this round goes to the Gym Leader."

_What now? _It occurred to Kantaris that, after watching her Quilava get defeated by a grass Pokémon and witnessing her Gloom getting sent to the Land of Nod in the middle of a battle, things probably couldn't get much more embarrassing. Throwing caution to the wind, she grabbed the mystery Pokéball on her belt and threw it. To her relief, it wasn't empty at all. An Eevee was sitting on the battlefield, grooming its tail.

"It _is _an Eevee!" Kantaris said aloud in disbelief.

"Were you expecting something else?" Erika asked, intrigued.

Kantaris growled in frustration at herself for letting her battle face slip. "Make yourself useful! Quick Attack, go!"

"Dodge it and use Vine Whip!"

As Eevee leapt towards Tangela, the grass Pokémon moved out of the way and struck its opponent with a few loops of its vines as it passed. Eevee skidded on the grass as it turned and set itself up for another attack. Kantaris sighed to herself. Perhaps having an Eevee wouldn't be so great after all. She had only ever wanted one so that she could choose its evolution.

"Tackle!"

Eevee lowered its head and hit Tangela from behind with a full-on, full-body tackle that sent it soaring. It crashed less than a metre away from Kantaris and she noticed, for the first time, the red boot-like things on its feet. _It might be cute underneath all those vines. _This was the first time an 'enemy' Pokémon had landed, semi-conscious, right before her. She was a little surprised that she didn't feel any urge to kick it.

"Tangela, return!" Kantaris stepped back as Tangela became a red glow and disappeared into its Pokéball. She watched Erika carefully, preparing herself for whatever might be next. She didn't have long to wait. "Ivysaur, go!"

_At last_, Kantaris thought. _A Pokémon that I actually recognise. _She was glad that it wasn't a Venusaur; a mere picture had been enough to convince her that she never wanted to face one of those in battle. But still, Erika's Ivysaur looked strong. Perhaps too strong for Kantaris's Eevee, especially as this was the first time she'd used it. But she was on her last Pokémon of the match. Unless Gloom woke up, this was a do-or-die situation.

"Leer, Eevee!"

"Don't fall for that one, Ivysaur! Razor Leaf!"

"Forget it!" Kantaris said as a sudden breeze whipped up a storm of leaves from the flower on Ivysaur's back. "Just avoid that attack!"

Eevee ducked, dived and dodged everything that came its way. It got hit only twice: Kantaris saw strands of fur falling from its ear, then its tail. But a bit of lost fur was hardly going to cause much damage.

"Uh...Quick Attack?"

She had only uttered the first word of her command when Eevee became a brown and white blur. Its opponent didn't have time to move and was soon spiralling across the grass. Ivysaur pulled itself back onto its short legs and huffed angrily.

"Vine Whip, Ivysaur!"

Eevee was waiting. It leapt over the oncoming vines as though it were playing jump-rope, but one of them finally caught it by the front paw and held it fast. Ivysaur began to drag it closer, and Kantaris knew what was about to happen. Eevee fought to free itself, but it simply wasn't strong enough.

"Good!" Erika said. "Now, Stun Spore!" Ivysaur's flower opened and released a cloud of thick yellow powder upon Eevee. "That should slow it down a little."

Ivysaur lifted Eevee into the air and threw it back towards the challenger's end of the battlefield. As Kantaris watched her Eevee get back on its feet slowly and shakily, she began to wonder how much money she was expected to hand over if she lost a Gym battle, and whether it would be more than just rude if she grabbed her Pokémon and ran out of the door as soon as it was over. Or, heck, maybe even right now. It was as good as over, anyway.

"Quick Attack?"

Eevee looked as though it wanted to obey, but its legs wouldn't cooperate. _Paralysis must be horrible_, Kantaris thought. _Better to be unconscious than to be totally helpless and aware of it_. And yet, she had never bought a Paralyz Heal in her life. What did that say about her as a trainer? Perhaps it would be better for her to forfeit the battle. The very idea sent a cold chill down her spine and put a sour taste in her mouth. She had never imagined that she would even _consider_ such a thing. Giovanni hadn't spent his precious time teaching her how to conduct a battle so that she could surrender. She gazed at her Eevee. _It can still fight_, she told herself firmly.

"I don't think it's going to be attacking any time soon," Erika said patiently. "Maybe you should – "

"You _would _say that, wouldn't you?"

Erika was evidently taken aback by her challenger's defensive comeback. She scratched her cheek. "I was only – "

"Huh?" Kantaris hadn't interrupted on purpose this time. Something was tugging on her belt. When she looked down, she saw that the light in the centre of one of her Pokéballs was flashing. Within seconds, its Pokémon had released itself onto the battlefield, its arms outstretched. "Gloom!"

Both trainers looked at the two Pokémon standing at the challenger's side of the battlefield. For a moment, Erika took a wary glance at Kantaris as if trying to decide whether she was the dishonest type who might not be able to resist attempting a two-on-one now that the opportunity had presented itself. She wasn't far wrong. Kantaris was certainly thinking about it. But before she could get too tempted, she pressed the button on Eevee's Pokéball.

"Eevee, return. Gloom, Pound attack!"

"Hey, wait...!"

"It's within the rules," the League official said. "Continue."

Gloom did not wait, in any case. It launched itself at its opponent, landed on its back and began to pummel it on the head with its short arms. An amateurish attack, but Ivysaur couldn't get rid of it. It flailed around blindly with its vines before finally raising itself onto its hind legs to shake Gloom off its back.

"Stomp it, Ivysaur!" Erika commanded.

"Don't you dare get stomped!" Gloom stood up and met Ivysaur's oncoming front legs with its own, holding off the attack. "Payback time," Kantaris muttered. "Stun Spore!"

If this battle had been a lottery, that attack was the jackpot. The two Pokémon were only inches away, Ivysaur attempting to crush Gloom into the grass with its weight. The noxious powder from the bud on Gloom's head went right into the other Pokemon's face and it fell back at once, attempting to shake it off. Erika had waited after Ivysaur had managed to paralyse Eevee, but Kantaris wasn't quite so generous. It was time to turn this battle around.

"Absorb! No, _Mega Drain_!"

It wasn't going to do much, but Kantaris just wanted Gloom to recuperate a little strength for security's sake. Ivysaur's paralysis meant that it couldn't do much to defend itself, and Kantaris noticed its knees buckling with the first showings of weakness.

"We have to fight, Ivysaur! Scratch attack!"

Ivysaur raised a claw and reached out towards its opponent as if in slow motion. Gloom merely leaned backwards, beyond its reach.

"Let's finish this with Toxic!"

Gloom cried out as if in agreement and drenched Ivysaur in poison. The combination of that and the lingering Stun Spore powder didn't make for a pretty sight, and Erika's Pokémon rolled over almost instantly. Whether it had really fainted or merely didn't want to go on, Kantaris didn't know, but Erika withdrew it with a bow of her head. Kantaris did the same.

"Challenger victory!" was the verdict.

"You know," the Gym Leader said after a brief silence, staring calmly at the official on the sidelines, "having two Pokémon on the field at any one time is against the rules. Am I not right?"

"I didn't do it on purpose," Kantaris replied at once. "My Eevee was as good as gone, and it's not as if I asked it to attack again after Gloom appeared." She sighed in irritation at Erika's continuing silence. "It was a _few seconds_ out of the whole battle. Do I deserve a badge or not?"

"You're both right," the League official said at last. "Having two Pokémon on the field at the same time is against the rules unless it's a double battle. However, from my observation, the challenger's Gloom emerged of its own accord and she instantly withdrew her Eevee. This makes it no different from a regular switch-out – which is completely permitted."

"In that case," Erika said, "I congratulate you, Sofia. Get your card stamped, then come with me next door to the perfume store and I'll give you the badge."

Kantaris almost wanted to thank the League official for ruling in her favour, but she remained silent as he sorted out her trainer card, still wondering whether he might be a part-time PDL ranger. This time, when she got her card back, she flipped it over to look at the badge record side. The microchips didn't look any different; there was no visible stamp. Presumably it was only readable by an official scanner.

Erika had disappeared; Kantaris wandered out of the Gym to look for her. She had not noticed that the building next door was a shop. It was full of pretty young girls and less-than-pretty middle-aged women, and Kantaris could smell them all from a mile away. The Gym Leader emerged a few minutes later with a rainbow-coloured badge, a small amount of money – and a cup of green tea, which was evidently for herself. As she set off back towards the city centre, Kantaris realised that this had been the first proper battle in which she hadn't used her Misdreavus at all. She was proud of herself, but she also felt guilty. A short way down the road, she took the first Pokéball from her belt and held it in her hands.

"Hey, Stella."

The Pokéball opened and Stella flew out, zooming around her trainer's head. She remained out of her Pokéball for the duration of the walk back to the hotel. They used to do this on a regular basis. Especially in winter, and especially if Kantaris couldn't afford the bus ride back to her flat from the warehouse where she usually worked. Her Misdreavus would always provide some company. Travelling with a Pokémon-sceptic like Domino meant that Stella wasn't getting much of a look-in these days, outside of battles. It almost made Kantaris want to continue the rest of her journey alone. But more than that, it made her realise that she was growing attached to her Pokémon. Not just Stella, but all of them. _Some of them, anyway._

* * *

"Do you want to tell me something, Dom?"

Kantaris was annoyed. She'd been unsubtly glaring daggers at Domino for the past five minutes. And this was due to the fact that, for the past five minutes, Domino had been staring right back at her. It was beginning to psyche her out. The two girls hadn't been speaking to each other properly since their run-in at the Rocket Amusement Corner that morning. True enough, they hadn't been in each other's company much since then due to Kantaris's Gym battle, but it was a Friday night. They were supposed to be out for a drink together and yet they still weren't speaking. Kantaris was still embarrassed by what had happened, and she was sure that Domino was going to treat her differently now that she knew she was just a Grunt. In usual circumstances, Domino _would _have treated her differently. But these weren't usual circumstances.

"It's nothing."

Kantaris folded her arms and gave Domino an icy stare. And it was a pretty powerful one. Domino couldn't help but think that, had Kantaris been a Pokémon, she would have caused paralysis by now.

"I was just thinking! What's your problem, K?"

"Maybe you should try looking somewhere else while you're 'thinking'," Kantaris said coldly. "You're making me nervous, staring at me like that."

"Couldn't really help it seen as I'm thinking about you," Domino admitted.

Kantaris unfolded her arms and leaned across the table towards Domino. She beckoned with both hands as if challenging the blonde girl to a punch-up. "Let's talk."

"I just find it strange..." Domino shook her head. This wasn't the time or place for a serious conversation. A bar brawl, maybe, but Kantaris would hardly be a worthy opponent. "Forget it."

"Say it."

Domino glanced around, making sure that nobody seemed to be listening in. This wasn't a great location for a hushed conversation: they were in a nightclub where the music was loud enough to make it necessary to almost shout in order to be heard. Domino understood now why Kantaris was leaning in so close; she did the same so that she would be heard more clearly. She also made a mental note not to say anything incriminating in case anyone _was_ listening.

"I was going to say that it's weird how the Boss takes a personal interest in someone like you. I mean, you're a Grunt!"

"How do you know that he takes an interest in me?"

"I overheard enough of your conversation today. All that stuff about 'special treatment'? You might think you're enigmatic, K, but some things don't need translating." Domino scowled bitterly. "Anyone can figure out what's going on."

"Let's say you didn't hear anything."

"Okay, if you want to be difficult..." Domino shot her companion an irritated glare. "Let's say I didn't hear any of that stuff. He _still _wouldn't let you leave work to take the Gym Challenge unless – "

"Maybe he doesn't know that I'm on the Gym Challenge."

"Now you're just being silly. He would know."

"Not if I'm only an insignificant little Grunt."

"That doesn't matter," Domino replied. "You have a supervisor, right? Someonewould know. _Someone _would find out that you hadn't done any work for a while and there would be people looking for you to find out what was going on."

"Yeah, there are actually dozens of Elite Rockets combing the country for me as we speak," Kantaris said, using her straw to play with the melting ice that lay in the bottom of her glass. "They're even offering a reward, but it's not much."

Domino flinched as Kantaris blurted out the word 'Rockets'. Luckily,there was nobody standing nearby who might have overheard. Besides, people had better things to do in a bar on a Friday night than listen in on a conversation. Hopefully.

"Don't joke around, K. What is it with you and the Boss?"

Kantaris's amused smile turned upside-down almost instantly. She didn't like Domino's tone of voice nor the demanding look on her face. Domino sighed, although it went unheard, and she sat back to give herself and her companion some distance. She wished she'd never opened her mouth now; Kantaris, too, wished that she hadn't asked Domino for her thoughts. The atmosphere between the two girls had already become too tense to salvage.

"How come you get to address him by name?"

"Because I knew him before I joined Team Rocket," Kantaris replied dryly. "Is that a good enough reason for you?"

Domino looked hurt. "How did you know him?"

"I guess you could say he took me in," she replied before downing the rest of her drink in one go. It was a bit of an exaggeration.

"_What_?" Domino wondered if she'd imagined what Kantaris had just said."When?"

"When I was a teenager."

"I don't believe you. He would never do anything like that."

"Well, he's a distant relation, put it that way."

Domino was stunned. This was even worse than she'd expected. She had always prided herself partly on the fact that she'd earned a decent place in Team Rocket through her family's connections – the rest of it, of course, was her own skill. She had never expected to find someone else in the same situation. She hadn't truly believed that Kantaris was as close to Giovanni as she'd claimed. Not until that phone call, anyway. And that, too, had been very strange.

"_I am asking you to travel alongside her for as long as possible and make sure that she is progressing. You must report back to me at regular intervals. Make sure that Kantaris does not find out. This is very important, Domino._"

How the hell had Giovanni even known that she'd met Kantaris? They said that Team Rocket had spies everywhere, but this was ridiculous! And Domino resented Kantaris for the whole thing. She couldn't deny it. She resented the fact that Giovanni would cancel one of his high-ranking agents' ground-breaking missions just so that she could follow some Grunt around, acting as some kind of secret chaperone.

"Why?" Domino asked, staring into her half-empty glass.

"Why _what_?"

"Why did he take you in? I know him. A family connection wouldn't be a good enough reason. I've heard he's got cousins in jail and the money to bail them out, but he doesn't."

"I don't know. Maybe he thought I'd make a half-decent trainer."

Domino's heart sank. She'd struggled with this for a long time now. Maybe, if she'd taken an interest in Pokémon training, she could have made an even better contribution to Team Rocket. Then, perhaps, she would still be in Kantaris' position now. _No. I'm good enough without Pokémon. I don't need to be a trainer. _Domino glanced at the four badges that glinted from the inside lining of the coat which hung on the back of Kantaris's chair. _But it seems that he still got bored of me. _There was some slight consolation in the knowledge that this was just another one of Giovanni's casual interests. Kantaris was basking in glory right now, but someday she would fall from grace and it would all be over. She'd be just another Rocket again. Domino didn't believe the 'distant relation' excuse for a minute. It was quite obviously a lie.

"You don't think he _loves_ you, do you?"

"No, of course not." Kantaris laughed at the idea. "Why would he?"

Domino was only further enraged by the swiftness and sensibility of Kantaris' reply. It would have been better if she had been all starry-eyed and deluded. Then Domino could have had the pleasure of telling her the truth: Giovanni didn't love anyone. Giovanni didn't even love himself. But Kantaris had already worked that out. It was infuriating. Domino finished her drink slowly, still gazing at the other girl. _I'll definitely do my job and keep an eye on her. I want to see where this one will end up._

* * *

**ANOTHER AUTHOR'S NOTE: **The latter half of this chapter is something left over from the original version of this fic. I don't like it, it's very Sue-ish, but it's a semi-important conversation. I just wanted to apologise in case it seems like I'm setting up some kind of _OC-replacing-and/or-being-better-than-Domino_ scenario. All I can say is that Domino might be jumping to the wrong conclusions.


	10. The Power Of Body

**DISCLAIMER:** I don't own Pokémon, any of its characters or any of its place names. If I did, it would be full of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll and wouldn't be suitable for kiddies. This story is rated for occasional bad language, mild innuendo and a few references to drugs and violence. It won't break your eyes, I promise.

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:** I like to think of this chapter as a sort of interlude in terms of the story progression...but important in terms of Kantaris' learning curve as a trainer. I've had a recent habit of writing **and** proofreading when I'm tired and/or in a hurry, so I sincerely apologise for any silly mistakes; I'll correct them if I find any. Also, I wanted to add a big **thanks **to the person who has favourited this story (you know who you are!) - and if anyone else is out there, please let me know that you're reading, I do appreciate it :)

* * *

_**Chapter 10**_

_**The Power Of Body**_

Following the serious conversation that they'd had, Kantaris and Domino had spent a week in Celadon City. The air had cleared. It was probably helped by the fact that they went out almost every night, spending half their time drunk and the other half hungover. In between, they obtained money to fund their drinking...the best way they knew how. They made a good team. With her innocent, doll-like looks, Domino could easily get anyone to lower their guard, while Kantaris was a very quick thief.

"Ever robbed a Gym?" Kantaris asked one night.

"No way."

"Maybe you should. You know, the Celadon City Gym is – "

"I wouldn't rob the Celadon Gym, dumbass!" Domino exclaimed with a laugh that was not quite genuine. "Erika's a nice person!"

"Two questions. Firstly, how do you know Erika? Secondly, since when do we have a policy of sparing 'nice people'?"

"Everyone knows Erika. She may look all sweet on the surface, but – "

"You're not about to tell me she's a Rocket," Kantaris interrupted, unable to shake the image of Erika in her flowery dress, whispering to the plants in her greenhouse.

"No, but she turns a blind eye to a lot of things that go on in Celadon City."

Although it had some very upmarket areas, Celadon City was not without more than its share of crime. What with the ongoing activities of Team Rocket for the police to worry about, it was easy for a couple of pickpockets to disappear into the woodwork. Gym Leaders were supposed to help protect their respective towns, but it wasn't an official duty. These days, it seemed that most of the Gym Leaders in Kanto did nothing of the sort.

The night before they were due to leave for Saffron City, Kantaris and Domino parted company during one of their evenings out. Kantaris had gone back to the hotel early, having decided that she wanted a clear head when they arrived in Saffron, the location of her next Gym battle. It didn't work: she still woke up with a headache and bloodshot eyes. Domino, however, did not return at all until late morning. Sitting up in bed, Kantaris raised a knowing eyebrow at the blonde girl as she came through the door, wearing the same clothes in which she had gone out the previous evening.

"Let me guess. You went home with that guy, the one you were talking to all night."

"Lucky guess."

"Well?"

"Got you some cigarettes." The blonde Rocket tossed them onto Kantaris's bed; they landed in her lap.

"Uh, thanks." Kantaris picked them up and examined the box. "Not what I usually smoke."

"It was all he had."

"Oh, you stole from him? And here I was, thinking that you were being good for once." Did a one-night stand count as being 'good'? "Relatively speaking," she added.

"Me? Good? Never." Domino's coy smile disappeared and she pulled a face as she realised what Kantaris had been thinking. "Nothing happened. I drugged the guy. Didn't you see me?"

"No!"

Kantaris had to wait a few minutes for Domino's explanation: she had just disappeared into the bathroom to get changed. When she emerged, she gave the brunette one of her signature smiles, a sure sign that she was proud of herself. "Sleeping pills," she said. "He got tired but insisted that he was just blind drunk, didn't object much to me sharing his cab home – "

"Well, obviously not," Kantaris remarked with a hint of jealousy. Domino was an attractive girl. "So, what did you get?"

"Not a lot. Just those cigarettes and a bit of cash."

"As long as you have enough to pay the bill." Seeing Domino's baffled expression, Kantaris dragged herself out of bed. "We're checking out of here today. You said you'd pay."

"Was I drunk when I said that?" Domino asked suspiciously.

"No." Kantaris walked past Domino and into the bathroom, snatching the towel out of her arms as she did so.

A few seconds later, Domino heard the sound of the shower. It was loud, hopefully loud enough to drown out any noise from the bedroom. With this in mind and a few wary glances at the bathroom door, she took her work phone out of her bag, dialled a number and sat down on the bed, twirling a ringlet of hair around her finger.

"Sir? It's Domino."

* * *

After their week of less-than-legal activities in Celadon City, one might have guessed that the two Rockets would have played it safe and kept a low profile. But that was not their style. As they left to catch the train to Saffron, they stumbled upon a street vendor selling cheap beer and bought as much as they could carry. They then spent the mercifully short train journey 'entertaining' their fellow passengers – or so they thought – with their singing. As a result, the conductor ordered them to leave the train one stop early. Still laughing despite this little setback, the two girls found themselves somewhere in the suburbs.

"Reminds me of where I grew up," Kantaris said with an unladylike sniff. Had she been a little more observant, she may have realised that she _had_, in fact, grown up not far from here.

"Is that the Gym?" Domino asked. She stopped in her tracks and grabbed Kantaris by the sleeve, pointing across the street at a building with an emblem of a fist and belt superimposed over a Pokéball.

"No," Kantaris replied at once. She was sure that she had passed the Saffron City Gym – almost everyday, in fact, on the way to work. This was not it.

"It says it's a Pokémon Gym." Domino crossed the street without checking for cars; luckily for her, the roads were quiet. "At least come and look, K!"

"But it's not...!" Kantaris groaned and followed her companion across the road. Her eyes skimmed lazily over the somewhat unfriendly sign beside the door. _The Fighting Dojo. Private training hall and Pokémon Gym. No public classes held. Visits by appointment only._ "Why would anyone have a private training hall?" she wondered aloud.

"I don't know." Domino had either not read the sign or she was choosing to ignore it. "Let's go in. The door's open."

Kantaris bit her lip as she watched the blonde girl go through the door. Walking into a room full of Pokémon trainers without invitation did not seem like a good idea, but Kantaris didn't want to look like a coward. She followed Domino up a curved, rickety flight of stairs and into a large room. The mats on the floor, the padding on the walls and the punching-bags here and there made it clear that this was not only a Pokémon Gym. It was also a martial arts school. The young female instructor, dressed in a black uniform with the school's emblem embroidered on the back, was practising kata at the other end of the room. Upon hearing the swish of the door, she broke off and turned around.

"Can I help you?" she asked abruptly.

Kantaris and Domino both noticed that she was not wearing a standard martial arts belt. Nestled at her waist, stark against the black of her clothes, were two Pokéballs. While Kantaris was trying to fathom out how Pokémon training and human martial arts would look when put together, Domino pushed her forward.

"She's on the Gym Challenge and she wants to challenge you."

"You do?" The instructor brushed a loose strand of her long, dyed-blonde hair out of her face. "I don't usually accept challengers. This isn't the official Gym, and in case you didn't see the notice outside – "

"We did see it," Kantaris replied, glancing at Domino.

"Well...you've caught me at a quiet time, so I suppose I can't reject your challenge now that you've made it. My name's Claire, by the way."

"Do you own this place?" Domino asked, gazing around the room. On the far wall there was a huge poster of a stern-looking, dark-haired man in some kind of purple martial arts uniform. He was holding a Pokéball in one hand and a shuriken in the other.

"Oh, no. I'm just a junior instructor..." Claire patted her belt. "In both human combat and Pokémon training."

"What sort of combat?"

"All sorts. Karate and judo are my main areas. The head instructor has a much broader expertise than me, but he's not here."

"Judo, huh?" The blonde Rocket smiled. "I just got my third-degree black belt in judo."

Kantaris stared at her in a mixture of awe and surprise. Her stare went unnoticed.

"I'm training for my fourth. We should have a match."

"You're on." Domino nodded towards Kantaris. "And a Pokémon battle."

"A Pokémon battle as well?"

"If you think you can take it," Domino added smugly.

"No problem. So, who's first?"

Thinking that it was much more important for her Pokémon to get some more battling practice than for Domino to show off whatever judo skills she had, Kantaris stepped forward. "I'm guessing this will just be a two-on-two," she said, nodding at her opponent's almost-empty belt.

"I think that's enough to produce a winner, don't you? I like my battles short, sweet and decisive."

Claire moved to the other side of the room and bowed smartly, signalling that she was ready to begin. The whole surface of the training hall floor would be the battlefield; Domino stepped back and sat on one of the many windowsills to watch.

Kantaris frowned. This was a less-than-ideal place to be holding a Pokémon battle. It seemed perfect for fighting-type Pokémon and not much else, but that was probably the point. She watched Claire taking one of the Pokéballs from her belt and casting it into the 'ring'. A Hitmonchan appeared and turned to exchange bows with its trainer before facing whatever Kantaris decided to pit against it. She sighed, realising that she was going to have to be predictable after all.

"I need you again, Stella."

"You're _always_ using that thing!" Domino complained from the sidelines.

Kantaris threw her an irritated glare before returning her attention to the battle, staring at her opponent through her Misdreavus's translucent body. "You can hit as hard as you like – "

"Oh, is that an invitation?" Claire asked. "Hitmonchan, Fire Punch!"

Kantaris thought that it was just a flashy name for an attack. Her jaw dropped as she saw a flaming fist heading towards her Misdreavus. Her own lack of battling experience was her Pokémon's lack, too, by proxy – believing herself to be much more untouchable than she really was, Stella didn't bother to move and yelped in pained surprise as she soon found herself smouldering.

"How...?" Kantaris stared at Hitmonchan, sure that she must have failed to notice something. "_How _can it use a fire-type attack?" Then again, she reminded herself, there was nothing 'electric' about Stella. "Thunder!"

Angered by Hitmonchan's last attack, Stella let out an ugly screech and carried out her trainer's command. It was no brilliant attack – more of a Spark than a bolt of Thunder.

"Reflect!" A shiny, see-through screen appeared before Hitmonchan. Stella's electric attack crackled and exploded harmlessly against it, and Claire laughed at her opponent's expression before becoming deadly calm. "Enough fun and games. Let's get this started for real. Hitmonchan, use Foresight!"

The fighting Pokémon appeared to be focusing hard, and its eyes sparkled red for a split-second. Aside from that, it seemed that nothing had happened. Kantaris had never heard of Foresight before and had no clue as to what it did, but she shrugged it off. Hitmonchan's protective barrier was fading slowly, and she was about to take full advantage.

"Hit it with Shadow Ball!"

"Break it up!"

As the Shadow Ball drew close, Hitmonchan punched out with lightning speed. The sphere of ghostly energy appeared to smash as though it were made of something material. Kantaris couldn't believe her eyes.

"But...that's impossible!"

"Now, Mega Punch!"

For the first time, Kantaris found herself ordering her completely ghostly Pokémon to dodge a completely physical attack. "Stella,_ move_!"

The Misdreavus had never heard her trainer say something with so much urgency. She let out a squeak of fear as Hitmonchan's fist missed her from beneath by about an inch. The fighting Pokémon took another swing, and it was clear that Stella wasn't used to getting out of the way: this time, a fist struck her in the cheek and she went cascading through the air. She obviously hadn't been completely de-ghostified: the wall didn't stop her and she vanished into the brickwork.

"How...?" Kantaris asked, on the verge of panic. "I don't get it!"

"Hey, calm down!" Domino said from her spectator's place. "Don't get all emotional."

"You _can't _hit a ghost-type Pokémon like that."

"You can if you have Foresight," Claire replied confidently. "Is your Pokémon coming back for another round, or do you want to forfeit?"

"We'll never forfeit. Stella, get back here and use Psywave!"

"Oh,_ now_ you're talking sense!"

Just as Kantaris was beginning to wonder whether Stella really_ was_ coming back, the Misdreavus shot out of the opposite wall with a powerful Psywave attack. Whether as a result of the Psywave or simply because it had been attacked so suddenly from behind, Hitmonchan put its gloved hands to its head and stumbled, not looking quite so steady anymore.

"Is your Pokémon going to sort its head out, or do you want to forfeit?"

"Not so fast," Claire replied, without so much as a flicker of discontentment on her face. "Come on, Hitmonchan. Focus Energy!"

"Ha! While you're wasting your time with that – Stella, Astonish!"

Stella suddenly let out a piercing scream that jolted Hitmonchan out of its intense inner concentration and even managed to snap Domino's wavering attention back to the battle. "What the hell was that?" she gasped.

"A new attack we've been working on."

"Don't do that again! It's the worst thing I've ever heard!"

"That's the point!"

"Unfortunately for you, ghost attacks like that can't damage a fighting-type Pokémon," Claire said with a placid smile. "Hitmonchan, Thunderpunch!"

Hitmonchan looked as though it was wearing boxing gloves, but that didn't stop a field of static electricity from forming around its hand. It began to swing its arm and charged.

"Confuse Ray, Stella!" As Stella's opponent drew close, it was struck with an intense light. Its rapidly swinging fist flew backwards into its own face and it fell to the floor. "Now, another Psywave!"

"I think that might be the coup-de-grace," Claire muttered in resignation, watching as her Pokémon made no attempt to defend itself from the oncoming attack. Hitmonchan was sprawled out on its back within moments and its trainer withdrew it with a slight shrug. "What do you think of the battle so far?" she asked in the silent lull that followed. "Be honest."

"You surprised me. I didn't think you'd even be able to touch Stella."

"So, having a ghost Pokémon made you complacent? Although we're still battling, I want to tell you something that might help in the long-term."

"What's that?" Kantaris asked, finding it hard to sound grateful.

"There's always a way to create a weakness in your opponent, or to remove one of their strengths. You just have to find it. Are you prepared to go on?"

Stella nodded determinedly, and that was all the answer that her trainer needed. "We're ready here." As Claire took the second and last Pokéball from her belt, Kantaris muttered to her Pokémon, "Get ready for Pain Split."

"Ooh, issuing orders when your enemy isn't even on the battlefield yet! You're a sneaky one."

"Guilty as charged."

"Hitmonlee, Foresight!" Claire commanded, throwing her Pokéball smartly with one hand and catching it with the other as it returned, empty.

Kantaris folded her arms and pressed them to her chest at the sight of Claire's Pokémon. As it prepared for its next move – or, worse, as it carried out that all-important Foresight technique – Hitmonlee bounced lightly on the spot, and Kantaris noticed that its feet didn't move at all. Its legs were made up of countless segments, as if it had dozens of joints, and they expanded and contracted with ease. Kantaris imagined that it could probably throttle its opponent with one of those limbs if it wanted to.

"Pain Split, now!" she ordered. Hitmonlee suddenly stopped bouncing and its legs creased, as though it were stooping under an invisible weight. Stella, meanwhile, appeared to grow stronger. Kantaris unfolded her arms. "So, now that we're on equal footing – "

"A bad pun to use when you're up against the Kicking Fiend."

"Doesn't matter. Even with Foresight, it can't _fly_." With Kantaris's final word, Stella drifted up to the ceiling and stared down at its opponent warily.

"Just so you know, that looks like something a coward would do," Claire said in a half-whisper, just loud enough to be heard. "Mind Reader, Hitmonlee."

Hitmonlee stared back at Stella squarely but made no move. Kantaris frowned in concern as she realised that this was probably another one of those non-attacking techniques, like Foresight, which would undoubtedly rear its ugly head in some way during the battle.

"Psywave, Stella!"

Hitmonlee began to bend again, this time under the powerful effects of an attack to which it was supposed to be weak. Despite this, Claire wasn't wasting any time. "Hi Jump Kick!"

Although she didn't like to see Stella getting hit, Kantaris couldn't help but wonder just how high Hitmonlee could actually jump. In a fraction of a second, its leading leg had propelled it, straight from standing, high into the air until its non-kicking foot was perhaps on the same level as Kantaris' head. She wasn't tall, but it was still an impressive jump. In the same instant, its attacking leg shot out to twice its normal length. Although Stella darted to the left, the attack followed, and she was kicked straight through the ceiling above her. Hitmonlee landed silently. Kantaris didn't know whether to be more amazed at its skill or the simple fact that it managed to predict Stella's movement.

"Wow," she muttered. "It's as if it can..."

"Read minds?" Claire laughed. "You're missing out on so many useful techniques!"

"You're getting owned!" Domino announced from the sidelines.

_Mind Reader._ Kantaris rolled her eyes at herself. "I'm technically winning," she said through gritted teeth.

"'Technically' isn't the word I'd use," Claire said, raising a hand to her mouth to cover a grin. "Come on, where's your strategy?"

Kantaris felt her cheek twitching in anger. "Stella, come back here!" she yelled. "Confuse Ray, _now_!"

"That's more like it. Using confusion is a good strategy."

Kantaris stared at the ceiling impatiently. Stella was nowhere to be seen. Just as her trainer was beginning to worry, she reappeared in a beam of light directly above Hitmonlee. Like Hitmonchan before it, it put its hands to its head before taking a blind swipe in Stella's direction. Its arms were flexible and far-reaching, like its legs, but Stella swept beneath the claw that came hurtling her way.

"Psywave!"

"Another Hi Jump Kick!"

Hitmonlee may have been confused, but it was still fast. It leapt into the air, heading straight for its opponent with a sidewards kick. This time, though, Stella zoomed out of the way. Claire gasped in alarm as her own Pokémon went crashing, foot first, into the wall not far from where she was standing. It climbed to its feet again slowly, not looking quite as springy as it had a few minutes ago. As it limped back towards the battlefield, Claire reached out to touch her Pokémon's shoulder. She shook her head and Hitmonlee returned to its Pokéball.

"Well, that was a good little battle," she said with a bow. "I'm glad I accepted your challenge."

"Really?"

"Yeah. I'd like to think that I've managed to teach you something."

"I guess so," Kantaris admitted. She decided not to order Stella back into her Pokéball. The Misdreavus immediately began to wander, floating along the perimeters of the room and disappearing into the walls now and again.

"Fighting Pokémon aren't all brawn and no brains. They can be as smart as any psychic types – "

"Doesn't the official Gym Leader use psychic Pokémon? Have you beaten her?"

"I'd be dumb if I were to say that type match-ups don't count for anything," Claire replied hastily. "Keep training that Misdreavus, and Saffron City Gym shouldn't be a problem for you."

"Well, I've been trying to use my other Pokémon, too. Stella gets too much practice." As her trainer spoke, Stella suddenly appeared behind her and seized a few strands of hair in her teeth. "Ouch! Back into the Pokéball, you."

By now, Claire had turned her attention towards Domino who was doing some light stretching. "Don't you want to get changed?" she asked, gazing at her jeans and T-shirt.

"I'll be fine as I am," Domino replied, sounding completely confident.

"If you say so." Claire removed the two Pokéballs from her belt with a shrug.

Kantaris knew nothing about judo. Although all Rockets were supposed to be proficient in basic self-defence, the way she had been taught – or the way they had _tried _to teach her – hadn't been very structured. She couldn't even remember if judo was a grappling art or not. She had never been interested, and she now realised that this hadn't changed in the years since she had left the Rocket Academy. Domino had been polite (or bored) enough to watch her Pokémon battle, but she didn't particularly want to stand there while two girls pinned each other to the floor. So, instead, she went to examine the imposing poster that hung on the wall. The name printed at the bottom was _Koga_. Eventually, after a lot of scuffling, she heard Claire speaking.

"Wow, you're not bad! What's your name?"

Kantaris turned around, wondering if Domino would give her real name or play the part of Kate again. To her mild surprise, the blonde Rocket shook Claire's hand and replied, "Domino. From Cerulean City."

"Ah." Claire wandered over to the windowsill and picked up a towel to wipe the back of her neck. "I know you."

"You do?"

"Well, you fit the descriptions that I've heard, anyway. You're an Elite, right?"

"Wait." Kantaris looked at Claire suspiciously. "You're a...?"

"Who do you think owns this place?" Claire laughed. "We're a Team Rocket training school!"

"I don't know why you're so surprised, K," Domino said. "All Rockets are trained in empty-handed combat, right?"

"Yeah," Kantaris replied awkwardly, remembering just how much of a failure her own 'empty-handed combat training' had been. She only hoped that Domino would never challenge her to a physical fight.

"So, it's not surprising that we own a few schools, is it?"

"I suppose not."

"I thought you were from Saffron City, anyway," Domino said, narrowing her eyes at Kantaris. "You never came here to train?"

"I went to the Academy in Viridian," Kantaris replied defensively, "if you must know."

"Listen," Claire began, clapping her hands to dispel the tense atmosphere that was forming between her two guests, "seen as you're the first Rocket I've heard of who's come this far on the Gym Challenge, maybe I can give you something that might help."

"Like what?"

"A Pokémon."

Kantaris stared at her. "You'd _give_ me a Pokémon?"

"You _did_ both manage to beat me," Claire reminded her, "but I can't give you any money. We don't keep any here. All we have is a collection of Pokémon who help out when we're training. They all come from Team Rocket, so you may as well take one. It's all for the same glory in the end, isn't it?"

"You have no idea," Domino muttered with a grin.

"I...don't know," Kantaris replied. "I appreciate the offer, but I'd rather not – "

"Why not?" Domino asked, her grin vanishing at once. "I swear, K, sometimes I wonder if you really are a Rocket, or just some part-time street crook playing dress-up."

"I'd rather catch my Pokémon for myself! Otherwise...well, it's cheating, isn't it?"

"So...so what? What's this sudden problem you have with cheating? You're not thinking of going straight, are you?"

"How can you even _ask_ me that after the stuff we did in Celadon? You're totally blowing this out of proportion." Kantaris decided to go for Domino's weak spot. "Trust a non-trainer to misunderstand."

"Team Rocket is called a 'team' for a reason. If you won't even accept a helping hand, well..."

"She does have a point," Claire said. "I wouldn't be offering you this Pokémon if you weren't one of us."

Kantaris felt as though she was being backed into a corner. She looked at her belt with its six filled slots and remembered that she hadn't exactly caught all six of those Pokémon. Stella had been a childhood gift; Quilava had been her starting Pokémon as a Rocket, back when it was just a chubby little Cyndaquil. And as for that Eevee, well, that was still a mystery. Kantaris glanced at Domino and made a mental note to ask her a few more questions later, but she was beginning to consider Claire's generous offer.

"What kind of Pokémon is it?" she asked.

"How about a Hitmonlee?"

"I dunno. They're sort of creepy." When Claire raised an eyebrow and Domino gave her a scathing glance, Kantaris shifted her weight nervously from one foot to the other. "Haven't you noticed that they don't really seem to have heads?"

"A Hitmonchan, then. They have heads, right?"

"Uh..."

"Is she always this indecisive?" Claire asked, directing her question at Domino. She didn't wait for an answer. She returned to the windowsill where she had put the two Pokéballs from her belt after the battle. After examining them as if trying to tell them apart, she threw one to Kantaris who caught it ungracefully. "I don't know if you could tell, but that one hasn't been with us for very long. But you're on the Gym Challenge. You'll have time to work on it."

"How..." Kantaris looked down at the Pokéball in her hands. "How do I know that it'll listen to me?"

"I don't need to tell you how to get Pokémon to listen to you, do I? You're a Rocket!"

"Sometimes I wonder," Domino muttered.


	11. The Power of Mind

**DISCLAIMER:** I don't own Pokémon, any of its characters or any of its place names. If I did, it would be full of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll and wouldn't be suitable for kiddies. This story is rated for occasional bad language, mild innuendo and a few references to drugs and violence. It won't break your eyes, I promise.

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:** Sorry for the epic wait for anyone who's been waiting! This chapter is a bit of a lull, too...probably not worth the wait, I'm sorry! However, I've made some slight changes to all of the earlier chapters – if you've already read them and remember what happens then it's probably not worth re-reading, but if you feel like a recap then you may notice a few changes (but nothing major!). The most major thing is the addition of the League officials in the Gyms...not really a big deal.

* * *

**_Chapter 11_**

**_The Power of Mind_**

As a rule, Domino didn't seem to take much of an interest in her travelling companion's Gym Challenge, so Kantaris was surprised when the blonde girl took a break from watching television to ask her, just as she was about to leave for the Saffron City Gym, "How many badges will this be?"

She had to open her coat and check. "Five." She'd stopped counting a long time ago.

"Must be way too easy," Domino remarked, returning her attention to the hotel room's television screen.

"The last two Gym Leaders were pretty tough. My Pokémon evolved during the matches. If it hadn't been for that, things might have gone differently."

Saffron City was Kantaris' 'home turf'. She had been brought up in the area, and she had lived there again for a few years before embarking on this journey. Gym Leaders tended to be local heroes, if they ever made themselves publicly known, so Kantaris was already aware of Sabrina's reputation as a trainer who was more than just powerful. She had no idea what that meant. She only knew that she had no experience in dealing with psychic Pokémon. And she knew her way to the Gym. That was all.

She was in no rush. She even considered taking a detour to visit the old flat; Samantha had said that she'd moved out, but Kantaris still had a key. She hadn't thought about how she would find a new place to live when her Gym Challenge was over; she'd expected to be travelling for months on end, when in fact it hadn't been that long at all since she'd left. That, she realised, must have been the result of train-hopping – and not enough Pokémon training. It was this thought that lingered in her mind as she reached the gate of the Saffron City Gym.

It was a strange building, grey with a circular white roof that rose and fell in waves and points, supported by columns that looked like stalactites. They seemed to bear down upon the challenger as she approached the door. It was closed, with no signs in sight. Kantaris wondered if she should take _this_ as a sign and come back tomorrow, but as she raised a nervous hand to try the handle, the door opened a fraction. Thinking that there was somebody behind it, she opened it slowly, only to find herself alone in a long corridor that ran in both directions, curving slightly as if it followed a circular path. The corridor was dark, but the glass-doored rooms that lay off it had garish fluorescent lights which made it possible to see. It reminded Kantaris a lot of a schoolhouse – but schools weren't supposed to be as quiet as this. Swallowing her discomfort, she began to slowly stroll down the corridor, frowning at the echoing click of her boots against the floor.

Finally, she came across a sign of life: a grey-haired man was emerging from one of the rooms, humming as he locked it behind him. He was wearing white overalls, making him stand out in the darkened hallway. Kantaris cleared her throat.

"You're looking for the Gym Leader," the man said, not even glancing at her. He pocketed the key. "But are you sure you're ready?"

"Am I in the right place?"

"That depends. Let's see."

He turned around to face her, and Kantaris saw that he was holding a single Pokéball in his hand. She'd presumed that he was just the janitor; now he was clearly challenging her to a battle.

"Yes, we'll battle here," he said. "This won't take long."

"But..."

_Is he the Gym Leader?_ Kantaris wondered, completely perplexed. _What happened to Sabrina, then? Where's the battlefield? What's the point of all these empty classrooms? _Still, these were useless questions. She had been challenged, albeit in vague terms, and she couldn't say no. With a shrug that made it clear she wasn't happy with the situation, she took Stella's Pokéball from her belt.

"Let's go," she muttered unenthusiastically, rolling the Pokéball along the floor.

The man continued to stare at her silently. He held his Pokéball in his open palm and its resident emerged of its own accord: it was an Abra. Kantaris only knew them as those timid, impossible-to-catch Pokémon that seemed to evaporate before you could even get a good look at them. But this one didn't seem to be fleeing. If anything, it looked as though it was asleep. Kantaris glanced at its trainer, wondering if he might be crazy. He certainly didn't look worried, despite his Pokémon's lolling head and deep breathing.

_Hell, why am I worried_? _This battle's mine! _"Shadow Ball!"

Although Stella looked equally confused at the sight of a sleeping opponent, she floated down to Abra's level and threw a ball of dark energy at it. Kantaris was sure that it had hit. It was at point blank range. But when it fizzled away, the place where Abra had been sitting was empty. Looking around wildly, Kantaris happened to glance over her shoulder. Abra was sitting some distance behind her, in front of one of the classroom doors. Its posture was exactly the same as it had been a moment ago; it had simply moved a few metres. Without actually _moving_.

"What the...?"

Stella was obviously just as baffled as her trainer. She floated down the corridor and sank to the floor directly in front of Abra, as if trying to figure out whether or not it was asleep. Kantaris held her breath, expecting the small psychic Pokémon to lash out at any moment. Stella screeched in irritation. As far as Kantaris could see, Abra still didn't react. Apparently deciding that it was fair game to attack a sleeping opponent after she'd sportingly tried to wake it up, Stella summoned up another Shadow Ball. It should have struck Abra full on. Instead, it disappeared through the door and Abra reappeared, unharmed and still dozing, at its trainer's feet.

"Am I going mad? What _is _this?"

"I'll now answer your questions," the man replied. He was still holding the Pokéball in his hand and Abra disappeared back into it without warning. "Yes, you're in the Saffron City Gym. No, it's not the right place for you at this moment in time. You need to do some more work. I'm not the Gym Leader. You'll find her – and the battlefield – at the back of the building, if you follow this corridor in the other direction. The classrooms are for our students. Is there anything else?"

Kantaris couldn't remember asking all of those questions. The sheer awkwardness of the moment prevented her even from saying 'thank you'; she withdrew Stella, turned around and went back to the entrance, her face burning with the knowledge that she'd just been humiliated somehow. She leaned against the wall outside and thought hard. She'd always worried that a time might come when she'd wish that she'd taken more notice of all the things that she should have learned; maybe this was it.

"I can figure this out," she told herself in determination as she walked down the path towards the gate.

The Saffron City Gym used psychic-type Pokémon. That must have been why the trainer she'd just faced hadn't issued a single command. His Abra could read his thoughts and do exactly what he wanted it to do. Maybe it could even sense its opponent's intentions and thus avoid every single attack. _It's a mind-reader._ Kantaris stopped in her tracks, a look of blissful realisation dawning on her face. Had there been a light-bulb over her head, it would have been switched on.

She was out of breath before she had even begun to jog towards the warehouse where she usually ground out a pitiful daily living. When she reached the sliding metal door, she thrust a hand into the pocket of her bomber jacket. Sure enough, her Team Rocket card was there, still in its case on the end of a tatty lanyard. She and that card had been through a lot together. It had gotten her into trouble on at least one occasion, but now she found herself thanking her lucky stars that she'd decided to keep it with her. She took it out of its plastic casing and swiped it in the small slot next to the door. As usual, it jammed, and she had to try again several times before the light on the slot turned green. She pulled the heavy door open with some difficulty and gave a semi-nostalgic sigh at the cardboard-box smell and icy air of her old workplace.

As she'd expected, she was immediately met by a trio of Rocket Grunts. Pausing to catch her breath, she flashed her card. They glanced at it and drew back in surprise. "I work here," she explained. "I've been off for a while."

"You'd better get back to work, then," one of them said, visibly disappointed that there wasn't going to be any drama.

Kantaris hadn't come to do any work. Instead, she wove her way through the shelves and packing machines towards the room that she'd always hated the most: the supervisor's office. Being a relatively insignificant warehouse, the place didn't have a regular manager. Various Executives would come in, usually late in the day, to oversee things. Most of them made it clear that they hated every moment they spent in that dusty room, so it was a safe bet that today's supervisor would be in a bad mood. But Kantaris didn't care this time. She knocked on the door, entered without being invited and threw her card down onto the desk.

"Technical machines," she said excitedly. "We have copies here, right?"

"Just...who the hell are you?" The middle-aged female Executive was sour-faced as she glared down her nose at the identification card.

"My name's Kantaris. I work here."

"Then why are you worrying about technical machines?" the Executive asked dryly. "Is it an urgent question?"

"Well, yeah," Kantaris replied with a shrug, seeing no other way to answer the question. "I'm on the Gym Challenge – "

"Oh, you're on the Gym Challenge, are you?" The supervisor gave a short, barking laugh to show just how little she believed what Kantaris had just said. Then she took a moment to look her intruder up and down and shook her head as if she was appalled. "Where's your uniform? What rank are you?" Realising that her second question would be answered on Kantaris's card, she picked it up and looked at it closely. "So, you're just a Grunt, and you expect me to believe that you're on the Gym Challenge."

"It's true." Kantaris unfastened her coat to show off the badges that were pinned to the inside lining.

"With whose permission?" It was clear from the Executive's tight-lipped smile that she was still just humouring the girl standing in front of her. There were such things as fake badges, after all.

"Giovanni's." Kantaris noticed that the supervisor's forehead creased in several places as she raised her eyebrows in shock at the sound of the Boss's name. She zipped up her coat again and buried her hands in the pockets, nodding at the dusty phone on the desk. "You can call him if you like."

The Executive sighed heavily and pushed the card back across the desk towards Kantaris. "I think you're spinning me a story, but I don't have the energy to deal with this, and I'm certainly not going to phone the Boss – which, _coincidentally_, is what _you_ should be calling him – over something so unimportant. What do you want?"

"I need to find a TM of a certain move," Kantaris explained patiently. "Like I said, I work here – "

"You used to."

Kantaris wondered if that was a covert way of telling her that she was fired, but she didn't think about it for too long. She had never liked that particular job. There were plenty of others in Team Rocket. Besides, seen as there was no regular manager, it probably wouldn't be too hard to weasel her way back into the warehouse – if she ever needed to.

"Well, if you say so," she said. "Anyway, I'm sure I remember that Team Rocket makes copies of technical machines."

"Those are for selling – as I'm sure you'll know, if you _used to _work here."

"Am I being fired?" Kantaris asked suspiciously. "Just tell me, so that I know whether or not to bother coming back."

"Honestly? I don't care either way. I've never seen you before." The Executive briefly picked up the membership card again and squinted at the picture, just to make sure. She shook her head. "If I were running this place full-time, you'd be out on your ass by now."

"So...can I have a TM?"

"No. You can't just take stock for yourself. Would have thought that was obvious."

"What if I buy one?"

"Go and talk to your ex-workmates. They're the ones who are going to be in trouble if anything goes missing. Might want to think about that before you start stealing things."

"I'll take that as a yes," Kantaris muttered.

In truth, she had never intended tosteal anything from Team Rocket, even if it was just a technical machine that would break after just one use. There wasn't a lot that she respected, but she respected this organisation. Although she knew that the money probably wouldn't find its way anywhere except into this surly supervisor's pocket, she took out a few notes and put them on the desk as she collected her membership card. The atmosphere in the office had sapped her enthusiasm; her legs felt so much heavier as she made her way to the department where technical machines were stored. It seemed to be deserted. Using a stepladder, she began to search the endless shelves. Before long, she heard footsteps.

"Don't worry," she said at once. "I do work here." _Or I used to._

"Thought I recognised you."

It was a male voice. Kantaris had never been particularly close to any of her workmates – she barely even knew their names – but she turned around, purely out of curiosity, and almost fell off the stepladder in surprise. "_You_!"

Jet scratched the back of his head as he felt his face turning red. The look on Kantaris' face made it clear that she had not forgotten what had happened in Cerulean City. "Yeah, it's me," he replied awkwardly. "I'm just picking some stuff up."

Kantaris said nothing, and she looked away before Jet could even begin to guess what she was thinking. She got down from the stepladder, moved it along a few paces and continued her silent searching.

"Listen...I'm sorry about running off," Jet said with a sigh, leaning against one of the metal posts that supported the shelves. "It's just...I had an important job to do and – "

"And you didn't want a Grunt getting in the way," Kantaris concluded. "I get it."

"Not exactly. I could have been in trouble if I'd brought you, that's all."

"I never expected you to take me with you."

"But you wanted me to tell you what was going on, right?"

"Of course not," Kantaris lied. She quickly pretended to be distracted. "How the hell am I meant to find _anything _in here?"

"What are you looking for?" Jet asked.

"A technical machine. I need it for a Gym battle."

"Wow, another one?" Kantaris glared at Jet over her shoulder and he instantly regretted saying anything at all. He hadn't meant to sound so patronising. In an attempt to redeem himself, he offered to help. "You carry on looking up there. I'll check the bottom shelves. You'll have to tell me what I'm looking for, though."

"The boxes are labelled. Each TM has a number but they don't seem to be in any order. The one I'm looking for is called Mind Reader. I don't know what the number is."

"Uh..." Before he had even knelt down to begin his search, Jet hesitated. "Are you sure it exists?"

"Yes! Someone used it against me in a battle just the other day!"

"But not every attack has been recorded onto a machine. There has to be a reference book somewhere." Jet looked around and pointed at a file that was hanging on a string from one of the shelves at the other end of the aisle. Kantaris jumped down from the stepladder and followed him as he went to look at it, but she was too short to read over his shoulder. "It doesn't seem to be in here."

"Oh, great. The _one time_ I come up with an idea – "

"I'm guessing that you don't own a Pokémon that already knows how to use that attack."

"No," Kantaris replied automatically. Then she paused to think. "Actually, I might have." She hadn't used the Hitmonchan that she had received from Claire at the Fighting Dojo. Although she'd only seen Hitmonlee using Mind Reader, maybe there was a chance that Hitmonchan could use it, too. But to send a fighting-type Pokémon out against a Gym Leader who specialised in psychic Pokémon would be suicide. "But I can't use it," she muttered.

"Maybe you could make a TM," Jet said, flicking through the file with his thumbnail. He looked as though he was deep in thought; he was no longer reading the file in his hands but was staring ahead at nothing in particular. "There's a way to do it."

"Really?"

"There has to be. How else did all these get here?" Jet waved an arm in the general direction of the shelves.

Kantaris thought that it was a rhetorical question – and she didn't have time for things like that. She stared at Jet impatiently. "Well, I don't know!"

"Neither do I," Jet said with a shrug. "But don't give up yet. Ask around; someone's bound to have an answer. As for me, I'd better get back to Viridian City. Sorry I couldn't help you. Maybe I'll see you around sometime."

* * *

"You lost," Domino guessed at once. It seemed to be obvious from the way Kantaris had thrown the door open, and the way that she held her head in her hands as she sat down on her bed heavily.

"I haven't even _seen_ the Gym Leader yet!" Kantaris replied. Her voice was loaded with anger; in fact, Domino had never heard her sound so passionate. It took her by surprise.

"Why? What happened?"

"There's _no way_ I can hope to win in that place..._unless_ I can get my hands on Mind Reader." She was about to start explaining what she meant, but Domino swiftly interrupted her.

"Mind Reader? Wasn't that one of the moves that Claire sprung on you at the training school?"

"I went to the warehouse where I used to work," Kantaris said with a sigh. She lay down on the bed as if settling in for a long haul explanation; Domino's subtle eye-roll went unnoticed. "They have technical machines there, but apparently there _isn't_ one for Mind Reader. It doesn't exist. Someone said that I might be able to make it myself, but I have no idea how to do that."

"It's easy!" Domino exclaimed, bursting into a fit of giggles. "I thought every Rocket knew how to make those things!"

"Go on," Kantaris said, sitting up and giving Domino a challenging stare.

"There's a device that they use. They should have one at the warehouse if they handle technical machines there. You just put in a Pokéball with a Pokémon that knows how to use the technique, and the device extracts it for you."

"How do you _extract _a technique?" Kantaris asked, crinkling her nose in confusion.

"I dunno," Domino replied, her expression suggesting that she'd never even thought about it before. "I guess it scans the Pokemon's brain."

"Sounds nasty."

Kantaris began to wonder how a Pokémon would learn something via a technical machine. Would it involve _forcing_ something into its memory? Would it be painful? She had used one before – on Stella, her most cherished Pokémon – without even considering that it might cause any distress. She'd never consciously had any issues with things that went against a Pokémon's welfare, but the idea that she might have put her loyal Misdreavus through something unpleasant made her feel queasy. She suddenly had a strange taste in her mouth.

"It probably is. Who do you think invented those things? Most trainers don't know." The blonde girl grinned as she took in Kantaris' lingering expression of disgust. "Neither did you, judging by the look on your face. Hey, come on. Perk up. You're the luckiest Gym Challenger around if you can get someone to make a TM for you."

"I don't think I have a Pokémon that knows how to use Mind Reader," Kantaris answered at once.

"But we know someone who definitely does. Someone who doesn't mind helping a fellow Rocket. Get your coat."

Kantaris dragged herself off the bed with a sigh, half-hoping that Claire's conscience had been more successfully suppressed than her own. _And I always thought I was on my way to becoming a perfect Rocket. I've got a lot of work to do._

* * *

"It's about that Hitmonchan you gave me," Kantaris began nervously, unsure how to even conduct this conversation. She rarely asked for help at all, and this was a very different kind of request.

"Yeah? How's it doing?"

"It's..." _It's still in its Pokéball_. "It's fine."

"She hasn't even battled with it yet," Domino interjected with a smirk.

Kantaris ignored her. "There was something I wanted to ask, though," she said. "Does it know how to use Mind Reader?"

"That one I gave you...?" Claire glanced towards the ceiling as if trying to search her own brain. "No, I don't think so. We hadn't taught it that move yet. Why?" She smiled. "You've realised that some non-offensive skills can be useful too, huh?"

"I'm not_ totally_ sold," Kantaris replied with a look of distaste, "but it would really help if I could use Mind Reader somehow – "

"Do you want to trade that Hitmonchan for a Hitmonlee?"

"Not exactly. See, it's for the Saffron City Gym – "

Claire made a strange noise in her throat which surprised Kantaris into silence. "I'm glad I made an impression on you, dude, but don't go taking these Pokémon into that Gym unless you want to get slaughtered."

"I know. That's why I'm after a technical machine instead."

"Ah."

"I don't really want to go down the road of making one – "

"She's turning into a bleeding heart," Domino explained on the side.

"Then you're lucky we have them here already. Exclusive to Team Rocket and their training schools." Claire put a finger to her lips in a playful way, but her eyes were serious. "Don't tell anyone."

As they were walking down the street a matter of minutes later, Kantaris turned the disc sleeve over and over in her hands like a flattened Rubix cube. "Did you say that Team Rocket invented these things?"

"Who else?"

"Then why do we only sell certain ones?" She cast her mind back to the shelves at the warehouse with their large but limited selection. Even she, with her less-than-thorough knowledge of Pokémon attacks, knew that there had to be so many more than that in existence. "Sounds like we're missing out on a lot of money."

"Maybe. But you don't want the masses to get too powerful, right? And you don't want them to get _suspicious_, do you?"

"I suppose."

"The thing about trainers is that they don't really think about what they're doing and they don't ask questions," Domino said, without a hint of pity. "They all say that they care for their Pokémon, but they'll use stuff like this without even stopping to _wonder_ where it come from or how it works. But, hey, let's be grateful for ignorance, huh? That's how we make most of our cash."


End file.
